Me and Tabitha went on a breastfeeding protest! it was very empowering.
Sports Direct had thrown a woman who was breastfeeding out of a store because "they don't welcome breastfeeding mothers". they refused to apologize, or even comment about what had happened.
So, a handful of protests were organized across the country, including one in Huddersfield.
I was really really nervous about going. I didn't want to put Tabitha in a potentially violent situation, i didn't want to get into legal trouble for protesting and conflict in general makes me feel very uncomfortable. but i thought this was a really important issue and i wanted to get involved. it helped that my very wonderful friend was coming too, because even though she didn't have a baby, she thought it was important too. The protest itself went really well, the manager saw us all arrive (with a reporter no less) and apparently looked dismayed and then vanished back upstairs again. but the rest of the staff had obviously been told to just ignore us (which was fine, because that's what they should have done in the first place!) we all found comfy places and fed our babies. we had several members of the general public come over and offer their support. we had a lot of positive comments. it was really nice. even the comments about the piece that came out in the newspaper where really positive (mainly, after all, this is the internet, they'll always be someone being obnoxious). I'm really glad I did it though. it made me feel more confident about my choice to breastfeed and continue to breastfeed, and make me happier to feed in public (not that I need to do it much any more, she's happier with juice and a sandwich).
In other news...
Tabitha is really close to starting to walk! she can now walk happily as long as she has one hand to hold! now i think its just a balance and a confidence thing and she'll be walking!
I am massively amazed by how good Tabitha is at eating! she just happily eats almost anything. smoked salmon, lime wedges, prawns, goats cheese, haggis...she just tries and enjoys nearly every food we give to her.
I keep switching between being really optimistic about the future and feeling really scared by it. On one hand technology and medicine has come so far so quickly, we now carry in our pockets devices with more computing power than the first rocket to the moon had! the technology is almost there to grow organs in a lab! society is becoming so much more tolerant (i never would have thought gay marriage would happen in my life time). music and knowledge is so much more accessible. new solutions for hunger and famine are being created, in her life time people could go on holiday to space! we might even start colonizing other planets!....all these things are amazing and i think spell a really bright future for Tabitha...on the other hand...the ice caps are melting and our seas are being irrevocably polluted, politics in England has taken a turn for the crazy right wing, the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society are being attacked by politicians and newspapers, while the wealthy few get away with tax avoidance and our politicians are proved to be corrupt, they are talking about scrapping the NHS which i never thought i would see in my life time, the massive access to information also includes information that i'm not sure i want Tabitha to have (i read somewhere that now most children have watched porn by the age of 12). the cold war has apparently started again, with Russia going crazy and invading countries and the rest of the world trying to stop them, Guantanamo bay is STILL open and we're STILL at war in the middle east...all of these things are terrifying and disturbing and makes me worry so much for Tabitha's future...
i've found out you can self publish books for the kindle...i'm thinking of maybe playing around with this blog, getting the spelling and grammar right, adding some content...and then publishing. what do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment