There are two controversial subjects that no mom will ever be able to answer properly for everyone: whether to feed their baby with the breast or a bottle, and, when breastfeeding the baby, whether it's appropriate to feed them in public or not.
TikToker @izlomax felt it was perfectly natural to breastfeed her baby and felt that the activity should be normalized in public settings. At least in the context of motherhood and breastfeeding, breasts really should not be perceived as sexual, after all.
But after a recent visit to the beach, the mom discovered that a fellow mother on the beach had not felt the same way.
Though the mother and her four-year-old son walked past the TikToker multiple times, the mother made no comment, but it was later made clear that she wanted the mom to cover up.
Ironically, the other parent thought that breastfeeding was an activity unfit for her son to see, but she had no issue with recording the other mom breastfeeding and also sharing it publicly on social media.
It's possible that the video was shared on Snapchat, since it has a black text bar on it like most Snapchat videos:
"Like, [for real], cover yourself up? [The f**k] is wrong with people?"
But the video was for sure shared publicly on Facebook, which is where TikToker @izlomax found it.
The video itself featured TikToker @izlomax breastfeeding her child in a typical beach set up with a beach chair and sun umbrella.
The anonymous mom wrote on the Facebook post:
"I'm not shaming women who breastfeed their babies. I'm shaming the woman who [breastfed] in public with no respect to cover themselves up and just let their boobs hang out (nipple included) for everyone to see!"
"COVER [THE F**K] UP! I shouldn't have to cover my son's eyes and explain why your boobs are out, and quite frankly, I don't want to see it, either. Have some respect!"
Fortunately, due to her own attention and fellow Facebook users' critical comments of the videographer, the public Facebook video has since been taken down. But the TikTok mom kept a copy of the video and still had some things to say about it.
The TikToker began:
"Imagine waking up, getting on Facebook and seeing this video of yourself from yesterday at the beach."
“What if you were told that the only way that you could eat at the beach is if you were covered up by a towel?”
The mother was clearly furious as she continued to explain how she felt.
“Not only did this woman walk past me multiple times with her son, you had every opportunity in the world to say something to me. Not that I would’ve cared or stopped what I was doing.”
“My child was also hungry in multiple restaurants and while we were walking down the street, and guess what? He ate."
"Next time you see a mom breastfeeding her child in public, covered up or not, tell her how good of a job she’s doing.”
As a final mic drop, the TikToker pointed out this gem:
“If you are sexualizing a breast to a four-year-old, you’ve got your own set of issues.”
You can watch the video here:
Fellow TikTokers were fully in support of the mom and breastfeeding in public.
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Some also found it overwhelmingly creepy to film a mom and baby without their consent, not to mention the situational irony.
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While breastfeeding might not be everyone's favorite activity to look at, it's clearly not meant to be an entertaining, sexual, or sports-like event for anyone. The only one deriving any feeling about it at all should be the hungry baby.
This is one of those situations where, if someone is uncomfortable in any way, they should just look away rather than scolding a mother who is taking care of her baby in the best way she can.
And for parents who are worried about their child seeing a mother breastfeeding—you definitely shouldn't be filming that very same activity and posting it online for the rest of the world to see.
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