A mum had a truly iconic response when a stranger told her to coverup while breastfeeding her three-month-old son.
While dining with her family on vacation, Melanie Dudley began discreetly breastfeeding her 3-month-old son as she sat in the corner of the establishment with her back to other diners. She was then approached by a male patron, who asked her to cover up.
After initially feeling “kind of stunned” by the interaction, Melanie came up with a funny solution to comply with the man’s demand: she put the nursing cover over her head.
Her iconic response was shared to Facebook by Carol Lockwood, who wrote: “A friend’s daughter-in-law was told to ‘cover up’ while feeding her baby, so she did!
“I’ve never met her, but I think she’s AWESOME!!!”
Melanie was initially wearing a breastfeeding cover inside the restaurant but decided to remove it due to the extreme heat, she said.
“It was like, 95 degrees, and my little baby was sweating,” she remarked. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m on vacation, I’m taking this off.”
“It wasn’t like a salacious fight or anything,” she continued. “I had no words so I thought, I’ll just cover my head instead.”
The post received a lot of attention on Facebook, and soon it had a massive 136K likes and almost a quarter of a million shares.
The comments section was flooded with support for the breastfeeding mum and condemnation for the stranger who shamed her.
One Facebook user wrote: “He’s a pervert for even looking at them.”
“One of the most natural acts should not be looked upon with anything but respect for the woman taking care of her child,” added a second.
“Tell that plonker!!” wrote a third. “We’re in the 21st Century now not the dark ages. Breast feeding is normal and natural to most people now days so… DEAL WITH IT OK!!”
“Good for her. There are women who were less than that on the beach,” remarked a fourth while a fifth added: “You go mama!!!!! Perfect.”
Melanie reminded everyone that there are no laws anymore that prohibits women from breastfeeding.
‘In case you did not know it’s your legal right to breastfeed in public from what I understand in the US,’ she wrote. ‘No one can ask you to stop breastfeeding in a public place, it’s just that most people are ignorant of this fact including most employers.’
One user took a more diplomatic approach, saying: ‘Respect is a two-way street and mothers who breastfeed should respect that not everybody is the same and some may find it uncomfortable (especially the older generations) and it’s not up to social media to dictate as to what people should and shouldn’t be offended by. I couldn’t care less really. Whip ’em out girls…or don’t, whatever.’
