Ever see anything totally shocking and unexpected on a cruise?

[onthatday]

I am all for nursing, but this was just creepy. I had a freind that nursed her youngest until he was four. It is unnerving when a kid comes up to mom and says "that one". At that point, it is not about nutrition anymore!!!



When I last cruised on the Magic, I was sitting by the Mickey pool when I saw a lady sitting directly across from me. She was wearing a very skimpy bikini. Her son, who looked to be about 4 or 5 years old, came up to her, pulled her top to the side , and started to breast feed. When he was done, he put it back and jumped back into the water. I couldn't believe my eyes and though they must be European. The child did it a second time. I wanted to see if I could detect an accent and when I passed by her I noticed a distinct southern drawl! That still gives me a chuckle to this day.[/QUOTE]

 

[brack]

Like IZZINMAC we were beside another ship in dock and there were several men and women who were dressing in their staterooms.

 

[banderson]

While I consider the "natural" method of feeding an infant the best for the child ........ right at the coffee station on deck 9, with NO COVER AT ALL, is not the proper place. I was stunned to see 'it".

Great stories here but this one seems out of place, especially for a cruise line that's geared to families, which BTW happen to include kids.

As a mom who breastfed both children for an entire year, I proudly quote my very wise grandfather, "That's what God gave women breasts for. No one makes me hide when I have a cup of tea, why should my grandson have to hide under a blanket when he's hungry." This was the reprimand he gave my uncle (my grandfather's son) when my uncle suggested I might want to feed my son somewhere else in the house during a visit to my grandparents. I was never prouder of my grandfather than at that very moment!

I never aimed to flash while breastfeeding but I never covered up either and made my son "drink in the dark".

 

[minniemouse71]

izzinmac, we were on that same cruise, standing in that same line

 

[brack]

As a mom who breastfed both children for an entire year, I proudly quote my very wise grandfather, "That's what God gave women breasts for. No one makes me hide when I have a cup of tea, why should my grandson have to hide under a blanket when he's hungry." This was the reprimand he gave my uncle (my grandfather's son) when my uncle suggested I might want to feed my son somewhere else in the house during a visit to my grandparents. I was never prouder of my grandfather than at that very moment!

I never aimed to flash while breastfeeding but I never covered up either and made my son "drink in the dark".

Call me a prude if you will but your examples are not of equal value. Drinking from a tea cup is not the same as a breast. The good Lord also gave me an appendage for a natural function but it would not be appropriate to do this on deck 10 or 4 over the side of the ship for all to see.

 

[rejobako]

With respect to infants who are exclusively breast fed (and haven't mastered a bottle nipple yet), I think it'd be unfair to mothers to suggest they should have to go to their staterooms every time it's time for a feeding. Poor mom would just be settling into a deckchair by the pool with baby when it'd be time to pack everything up and go back to the room. With kids that young, just getting from place to place with them and the diaper bag, etc. is like planning the invasion of Normandy.

That being said, I know that many people are a bit offended by a public glimpse of nipple (last year's Superbowl show dramatically demonstrated that!), even if it is in the context of feeding a child. And to be honest, although I'm not "offended" by such things, as a man I know I'd feel a bit self-conscious and awkward if I were sitting on a cruiseship next to a woman breastfeeding her child without any attempt to be a bit discreet (with a cloth or blanket, etc.). A baby on mother's breast is one of the most beautiful sights in the world, but frankly I don't feel like I should be given a birdseye view unless it's my wife and my child.

So in summary, I think there's room for compromise here, somewhere between banderson's grandfather and brack's sense of appropriate behavior on a cruise.

 

[brack]

A baby on mother's breast is one of the most beautiful sights in the world, but frankly I don't feel like I should be given a birdseye view unless it's my wife and my child.

So in summary, I think there's room for compromise here, somewhere between banderson's grandfather and brack's sense of appropriate behavior on a cruise.

Lest I be misunderstood here; in no way have I suggested that breastfeeding in public is a bad thing. What I have said is that IMHO it is not appropriate to openly display this very natural function or any other natural function that I will not mention.

 

[banderson]

Granted, I am a big advocate of breastfeeding and I cannot imagine anyone being offended or even bothered by seeing something so "normal". There are limits naturally and as I stated I never once made a point to flash no matter where I breastfed, at home or away. A mother must feed her child but that doesn't warrant her offering everyone and anyone around a free peep show. God knows that there are enough creeps out there who would purposely look for the thrill of it.

That being said, it amazes me that no one would ever consider giving a nod of disapproval to a scantily clad, good-looking, fit woman prancing around the pool in a thong or a string bikini, despite the fact that she is probably exposing more "skin" than a woman breastfeeding an infant. It begs the question of whether we in North America now accept to see a woman's body only as a source of pleasure, but not as a source of life/nourishment.

Come on...unless you're going out of your way to look rather than finding something more interesting to look at, what do you really see? A quick flash of a nipple until the kid latches on - that's mere milliseconds if the kid is truly hungry. Or maybe a few square inches of untanned skin? Get a middle aged man with a belly to bend over and you're likely to see more than that...

Here's an interesting piece of science. An infant's vision is limited to about 12 inches in the early months, which as nature would have it is roughly the distance between a mother's face and an infant's face during breastfeeding. Study after study shows that the bonding that occurs during breastfeeding contributes to a child's sense of security in his first relationship with another human. And we want to put a blanket over the kid's head? And in doing so, we hope to achieve what? Make all the onlookers happy? Get a head start at trying to produce another mixed up kid? Haven't we all produced enough of those already?

For all those "oh my God, is she really breastfeeding in public" posts, I'll use the word my son uses whenever he hears something completely ludicrous : "Whatever..."

Sorry for the long post, but I couldn't let this one pass...

 

[llyolf]

My last cruise, my DD was a 12 week old vicarious breastfeeder. I say 12 weeks because she just made the cutoff for being to young... the 3 months were actualy 13 weeks.... anyway... My wife spent a lot of her time feeding Lily in our room.... I think she did feed out and about some, and this kid didn't like being covered up... she wanted to look while she ate..... the funniest part was the formal night.... wife wore a "scrunch" dress that was long... of course DD decided she was horribly hungry and DW had to take the whole dress off... did she do it in the dining room... uhhh no...

 

[rejobako]

Granted, I am a big advocate of breastfeeding and I cannot imagine anyone being offended or even bothered by seeing something so "normal". There are limits naturally and as I stated I never once made a point to flash no matter where I breastfed, at home or away. A mother must feed her child but that doesn't warrant her offering everyone and anyone around a free peep show. God knows that there are enough creeps out there who would purposely look for the thrill of it.

That being said, it amazes me that no one would ever consider giving a nod of disapproval to a scantily clad, good-looking, fit woman prancing around the pool in a thong or a string bikini, despite the fact that she is probably exposing more "skin" than a woman breastfeeding an infant. It begs the question of whether we in North America now accept to see a woman's body only as a source of pleasure, but not as a source of life/nourishment.

Come on...unless you're going out of your way to look rather than finding something more interesting to look at, what do you really see? A quick flash of a nipple until the kid latches on - that's mere milliseconds if the kid is truly hungry. Or maybe a few square inches of untanned skin? Get a middle aged man with a belly to bend over and you're likely to see more than that...

Here's an interesting piece of science. An infant's vision is limited to about 12 inches in the early months, which as nature would have it is roughly the distance between a mother's face and an infant's face during breastfeeding. Study after study shows that the bonding that occurs during breastfeeding contributes to a child's sense of security in his first relationship with another human. And we want to put a blanket over the kid's head? And in doing so, we hope to achieve what? Make all the onlookers happy? Get a head start at trying to produce another mixed up kid? Haven't we all produced enough of those already?

For all those "oh my God, is she really breastfeeding in public" posts, I'll use the word my son uses whenever he hears something completely ludicrous : "Whatever..."

Sorry for the long post, but I couldn't let this one pass...

In defense of my previous suggestion of a compromise position, I did not suggest that a blanket be placed "over the child's head". My wife breastfed our children, and I know from watching her do so that a cloth or blanket can be strategically placed to offer both baby and mother some privacy without impeding the child's view of his/her mother. What I mean is, if you stood right next to them and wanted to see, you could. But if you were sitting a bit further away or from across the room, for all my daughters knew they were alone with mommy.

In the meantime, it's obvious this issue is important to you, but I think it's a bit of hyperbole to suggest that any attempt at discretion is going to create "mixed up kids". Like it or not, many of our fellow citizens have a societal expectation that when they go out into a public setting, they will not be confronted by a bare breast. And my guess is that most of these people are less flustered by the fact that they're seeing a glimpse of skin than the feeling that they are intruding on mother/baby. Now, mother may not give a hoot who's looking, but that's almost beside the point. Times may be changing, and I have no problem with that. For now, however, I think it's appropriate for a mother breastfeeding her child in public to realize that there are people who will either feel offended (which is an extreme reaction, IMO) or uncomfortable (which is more understandable) with it. So whereas, as I said earlier, I think it's silly to suggest that mothers not breastfeed in public, I also think it's appropriate for the mother to take reasonable action, if possible, to create a zone of privacy for she and her baby that still affords the opportunity to bond as you described.

And now, I think I've milked this topic long enough . . .

 

[Regina]

Okay, let's look at the subject of this thread. It's not to debate breastfeeding so please let's get back on track.

Thank you.

 

[rejobako]

Sorry; I'm udderly ashamed of myself.

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

russtwinsmom that is so funny,I have laughed till I cried. Bless her little heart she was just thinking out loud. Panty Faire how cute HAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[2timecruiser]

We had an experience our first cruise on disney in May 2003. We went on the Atlantis aquarium tour. It was myself, my dh, ds (7) & ds (5 months). We had a wonderful time at the aquarium. On the ferry ride back, I sat on the lower level with the stroller & my youngest ds. My dh & ds sat on the upper lever to enjoy the better view. We we arrived back at the port, we got off the ferry & started our long walk back to the Wonder. On the walk back, my husband told me about this young man, college age, that sat near them & talked on the entire way back. Dh thought it was a little unusual, but didn't know why he thought this way.

When we arrived back at the Wonder, we arrived at the first guard, & I took all our kktw & id's out & handed them to the guard. The guard looked at them and told us to proceed to the ship. The young man must have been behind us, because I heard him state that he was with us. Myself & dh both stated that we did not know the young man to the guard & the guard motioned for us to proceed onto the ship. We proceeded onto the ship & were entering the elevators, when we hard a lot of commotion behind us. I turned around to see this young man run onto the ship & through the security station. He made it all the way to the stairscase before he was tackled by several security guards. I was quite scared and we continued up to our stateroom. Once there, we went out onto the verandha where we watched as the security guards escortted the young man off the ship.

I just thought I would share this story with everyone. Has anyone else had anything like this happen?

 

[BuncoHappens]

The point of the breast-feeding issue is that the kid was not an infant....he was 4 or 5!!

 

[chasbos]

2timecruiser - wow that would have freaked me out! You have to wonder how he got all the way to the ship? It is not like you walk past the first security and you are right at the ship - you have to walk the whole length of ship to get on. Wonder what this guy wanted?

 

[dizneykids]

...definitely exciting to say the least. We were awakened on one of our cruises at 2:00 am to the sounds of many feet running on deck 9 (we were in the Walt Suite on deck 8). DH goes out on the balcony to see what the excitement is and saw the smoke billowing off the ship. It wasn't until 4:00 that they finally announced that there was a fire on board, and everyone needed to get to their evacuation stations with lifejackets on....and there we stayed for more than an hour. Not a problem for those whose evac station was the WDT, but for those of us on deck 4 who had to keep inhaling the smoke while standing the whole time, it was less than enjoyable.

Of course, that pales in comparison to the time the diesel exhaust was sucked back into midships, and many of us got sick while the crew denied there was a problem. Now there was a time that the old Disney "magic" was not in play!

But not to be discouraged, we continue to sail...four months and counting!

 

[cjsmith]

We had an experience our first cruise on disney in May 2003. We went on the Atlantis aquarium tour. It was myself, my dh, ds (7) & ds (5 months). We had a wonderful time at the aquarium. On the ferry ride back, I sat on the lower level with the stroller & my youngest ds. My dh & ds sat on the upper lever to enjoy the better view. We we arrived back at the port, we got off the ferry & started our long walk back to the Wonder. On the walk back, my husband told me about this young man, college age, that sat near them & talked on the entire way back. Dh thought it was a little unusual, but didn't know why he thought this way.

When we arrived back at the Wonder, we arrived at the first guard, & I took all our kktw & id's out & handed them to the guard. The guard looked at them and told us to proceed to the ship. The young man must have been behind us, because I heard him state that he was with us. Myself & dh both stated that we did not know the young man to the guard & the guard motioned for us to proceed onto the ship. We proceeded onto the ship & were entering the elevators, when we hard a lot of commotion behind us. I turned around to see this young man run onto the ship & through the security station. He made it all the way to the stairscase before he was tackled by several security guards. I was quite scared and we continued up to our stateroom. Once there, we went out onto the verandha where we watched as the security guards escortted the young man off the ship.

I just thought I would share this story with everyone. Has anyone else had anything like this happen?

wow, that would have freaked me out!

 

[izzinmac]

On one of my cruises I saw a new menu!

 

[cjsmith]

On one of my cruises I saw a new menu!

LOL....this was great!

At one of our dinners at Palo we had a window seat. We watched a man walk up to the windows and precede to check himself out and pat down his hair, pull down his shirt and make sure he looked presentable I guess. Well before he left I guess he decided that he needed to make sure his nose was all clear and presentable so he dove in and made sure he didn have "a bat in the cave" as we say. Nothing like watching someone pick their nose to give you a big appetite!