I am friends with Gemma Kelsall. I am also going to say that I am proud to be friends with her. Some people may think that she is a lunatic, or lazy or some other semblance that really isnt true, but I will stand by her and her cause until the end.
Don't know what I am talking about? Read here and here. Don't worry I will wait........
Oh also read here, because that is what I am going to blog about.
So now that you are all up to date, lets clarify a couple things.....
1) The City of Calgary has given Gemma letter after letter telling her why it is not okay to nurse in or around the pool. The whole reason why she even thought about having a "nurse in" was so that she could get the city to hammer down an actual policy. That's all she wanted. Edmonton has had one for years, and she has never been commented to in that city or at any of the other pools in Calgary. Just the pool in question has the issue with nursing in and around the pool.
2) So since it was just this pool. perhaps it is just a couple staff members that have problems with nursing moms, and if so, I bet they are sorry now that they ever opened their mouths to disagree.
3) They even complained to her when she nursed on the deck...just wanted to state that for the record.
4) The media focused on the age of her child, and so did all of the negative posters....what is wrong with people? 21 mos is not too old to be breastfed...my child is 16 mos and has 3 teeth....3.
5) The attitudes of public breastfeeding is what makes me the crazyiest...but I am going to donate a whole blog post on that one....
6) The hate mail. Seriously.
This one blows me away. A couple years ago Gemma was nominated for the Vibe 985 baby shower. 60,000K or something like that. She became a finalist, and sadly didnt win. But, she was a finalist because over 10,000 people voted for her, because they liked her, her kids, and saw what hardship she was going through....then this same city, attacks her for wanting a clear policy on where exactly she can nurse her baby.........
Which by the way, really wasnt the point.
The point was....the city had a policy, the lifeguards ignored the policy, harrased her, and were taken to task......
And a last point, who cares if she does or doesnt nurse in the pool....does it really affect you personally....? I mean really, are you right there swimming with her, in the toddler pool? If not, why do you even care?
Art mystery possibly solved?
1 day ago
1 comments:
I think it is really unfortunate the way that it all blew up. I hate to say it, but I actually don't think the results ended up positive.
While I believe in the issue, I think the backlash was very negative and it makes me wonder if the public is ready for this step?
I was totally shocked by how strong the reaction was against public breastfeeding in general. It really makes me think that basic awareness about public breastfeeding needs to go further first. Until that happens, the average person can't recognize breastfeeding in pools as normal.
I mean, if someone isn't ready to see a woman breastfeeding in the mall or park, they really aren't ready to see them breastfeed in a pool.
I have to admit that the comments about public breastfeeding really effected me and I wrote a rather lengthy blog article about it myself. I look forward to reading yours.
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