People power never ceases to amaze or inspire me, and none more so than a group of mums.
When human beings feel strongly about something, they’ll quickly band together and make their feelings known.
Many a planning development has been overturned, clubs saved from closure and open space protected thanks to protest.
It doesn’t always work but sometimes, just sometimes, others do listen.
So when a mum breast-feeding her child in a coffee shop was asked to move to the toilet, the outpouring of reaction came as no surprise.
Hundreds of complaints were posted on Facebook after the incident at the Rochester Coffee Company last week and the debate has continued on our website.
The company has since offered a “full and frank apology” to the mother. They said they “have always been a breast-feeding friendly company” and it was a momentary lapse of judgement.
It isn’t all the coffee shop’s fault. From their statement, it sounds as if staff were suggesting mum moved to a quieter spot in a bid to keep everyone happy, but ended up upsetting more than just the few customers who complained.
When and where to breast-feed always seems to raise huge debate when it shouldn’t. It’s natural, it shouldn’t be an issue and if you don’t like it, don’t look.
Most mums are as discreet as they can be – they don’t want people to notice what they’re doing – and those few who do don’t deserve your attention, so don’t give them the satisfaction.
Congratulations should go to manager Stephen Ruffle who as well as apologising has said that, as a goodwill gesture, 50p from every cup of coffee sold this week will be donated to charity. Good news.
+++
For those of you who were wondering, my brother’s wedding went well.
I didn’t trip up the aisle, I didn’t stand on the bride’s dress, although I did have a mishap with the necklace she was planning to wear when it broke in my hands – I was mortified.
And if anyone has a video of a bridesmaid jumping up and down on the dance floor for several hours, it wasn’t me, honest...
RSS feeds