Find all of my 31 Moments of Motherhood posts here.
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[Lights come up on a woman sitting on a chair with an infant tucked under a nursing cover. She is in a restaurant bathroom, tucked between a trash can and a sink, looking miserable. A diaper bag and a carseat sits at her feet.]
Me
While we are on the topic of nursing, this is where I found myself when my first child was about two months old…in the bathroom of Arnie’s restaurant after going to my sister’s college graduation.
[Sound of hand dryer blowing drowns her out. She sits grimly until it turns off.]
Me
I feel so awkward about nursing that I try to find out-of-the-way spots when I have to nurse my daughter when we are not at home. This has brought me to all sorts of “interesting” nursing locations…dressing rooms, bathrooms, the backseat of the car, and most memorably, this bathroom at Arnie’s.
[Looking around] As bathrooms go, it isn’t so bad. I have a chair to sit in, and there’s some flowers by the sink. But it’s still a bathroom.
[Talking to someone in the bathroom.] Hi…yes, just feeding my baby. The nursing cover? I got it as a gift, but I love how the top swoops out so I can peek in and see what is going on. [Pause] Yep…thanks!
[Back to audience] Okay. So maybe it isn’t so great after all.
[She looks down at her baby through the top of the nursing cover, deep in thought. Suddenly, she looks up, a determined look on her face.]
This is ridiculous. I would never eat in a bathroom, so why in the world am I making my baby eat in here? I’m done hiding.
Done.
If people don’t like it, that’s their problem. My baby can eat at the table, just like everyone else.
[She sighs a deep, satisfied sigh, puts her baby in the carseat, and her nursing cover into the diaper bag. Standing up, she addresses the audience.]
Me
And that was the last time I “hid” in the bathroom…to nurse that is.
Hiding in the bathroom for other reasons? That would come later.
[Lights down.]
