Big fail, Ft. Bliss.

El Paso has been a wonderful place to breastfeed. Nobody has given me a dirty look. Nobody has said anything to me. I've nursed in public on a near daily basis, in a crowded basketball stadium, in the checkout line at Walmart (hey, Chai was screaming and there was only one thing that would quiet him. Would people rather I just let him scream? I think not.), at a popular restaurant while eating pho with my one free hand (an interesting maneuver!), and really most anywhere else you can think of. I never ever cover up (There's no activism behind that. It's just more trouble than it's worth.) The people of El Paso have been great about it. It's normal here.

Today I went on post to meet up with some friends at the playground at the PX. Ever since Thak got out, going on post is a weird experience to begin with. It's like looking at the few shreds that remain of my old life while we work to build a new one on the outside. So beyond the inherent weirdness of being on post, I was hanging out in the playground with Erin and Orren, waiting for our friends to show up, and Chai got hungry, so of course I nursed him. Every person who walked by stared, some with disgusted looks. One woman who was sitting on the other side of the playground from me stared the whole time, and gave me dirty looks the whole time I was there, even after Chai finished eating. Another woman (whose child was a complete brat, just for the record) yanked her daughter away when she got anywhere near me, and said something about how she didn't need to see "that". For the record, I'm pretty good at nursing in public now. I was wearing a tank top, and could latch Chai on in such a way to show very little. Any swimsuit on the planet would show twice as much boob as they saw there. Yet Ft. Bliss was not accepting in the least of Chai's right to eat his lunch wherever he wants.

I shouldn't be surprised, but I was. We haven't had a reception that nasty since we were in Savannah. (Savannah is a truly hostile place to breastfeed, but the more I think of it, the more I believe it's got more to do with the Active Duty military community than anything else.) El Paso has been so easy to get along in as far as nursing in public goes, I guess I got used to positive or neutral reactions everywhere I went, so it was really surprising to receive negativity about feeding my baby.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Women who nurse uncovered in public do not have an agenda beyond "feed the baby", nor any ulterior motive. I'm not trying to distract your husband, corrupt your sons, or cause a scene. On the contrary, I'm trying to save MY husband a few bucks by feeding MY son for free, and I'm pretty sure the screaming that would ensue if I didn't do it would cause a far greater scene. I will not cover up because covering up is a royal pain. So Ft. Bliss, if it offends you to see a mom nursing in public, how about you put a blanket over YOUR head? That would suit me fine.