I just had to share this with you all.... (long post) I went to the grocery store Saturday night (by myself! :grin: ) and while standing in line at the check-out, I noticed a young girl with her baby in front of me. Being the mom I am, I started smiling at the baby and waving to her as she engaged me. She was so cute! She looked to be about a year old, and was shaking an empty bottle (looked like she had just finished it -- or it hadn't been washed). The mother looked to be about 20, but apparently she had a ID that said she was 21 because in her basket was a large case of beer and a package of baby formula (what a combination!). As she counting out all the change in her plastic cliniqe bag that she was using for a purse, it became obvious that she didn't have enough to cover her bill. She was desperate, counting every PENNY she had and stacking them in stacks of 10. It was no use--she didn't have enough. The cashier took ahold of the handle of the beer package and tried to lead her (gently) to the correct decision by saying, "I can have someone put this away for you" and gently trying to slide it out of the way. The mother objected and we all waited as she dug around in her purse for more money. The cashier, making eye contact with me occassionally, said, "You have enough to get the formula for now" but the mother kept looking for more money. She finally gave up the fight and told the cashier that she could put up the BABY FORMULA and she would buy the beer. The cashier just gave her blank stare for awhile, and sighed big and rang up the beer. I started to step forward to offer to buy the formula for this beautiful little girl with the empty bottle, and the cashier was looking at me as though she knew exactly what I was thinking. As I started to speak, a "friend" of hers came up and loaned her a couple of dollars to go ahead and buy the formula -- he told her it would cost more in gas to have to come back to the store later. I was so shocked! I felt so sad for that entire situation and that precious little baby! After they walked away the cashier and I discussed the whole thing. She said that it was nice that I was going to pay for it, but unfortunately it wouldn't change her priorities....I would just be making it easier on her. I told her that it may be true, but I could certainly sleep better at night knowing that I helped fill that little girl's tummy. I was just so saddened by it. I came home and told my husband and he couldn't believe it. I guess I'm naive about these things, because I'm sure it happens all the time. (but that doesn't make it any better) :cry:
Wow. Praise God for breastfeeding! Some things in life are still free . At least we know that at a year she could eat table food to fill her belly for the most part....as long as that was a priority.
Daddy/boyfriend probably sent her out for the beer. I bet she used her own money, too. I wonder what was so pressing about buying the beer? What would have happened if she had gone home without it?? I've done that, too, helping someone who was short and almost having to put something back. It's hard to know when to offer, though, because you never know how you will be taken.
Years ago when I worked in a grocery store, I'll never forget the family that came in with a cheque from social assistance (a.k.a. welfare). A little girl with curly red hair (who looked to be about 2 years old) sat patiently in the stroller while Mom put two large bags of cheesies on the conveyer belt and spent the rest of her cheque buying tobacco :shock: I was absolutely blown away by that. I hope and pray that she had lots of groceries in her house - those cheesies weren't going to last long. It used to be that if you wanted to cash your cheque at a store you had to spend 10% of it's value buying something there. They weren't fussy about what you spent it on until someone starting (rightfully) kicking up a fuss about so many of them buying tobacco or alcohol with it (we don't sell alcohol in regular stores so that wasn't as much of an issue - but the liquor stores are booming when cheques come out :roll: Misguided priorities - You bet! Heart wrenching!Unbelievably so. And so all we can really do is to pray about it...
Brooke, I wanted to respond to what you said about breastfeeding, I wouldn't want the young lady that drank a lot of beer to breast feed her baby, I don't think that would be good for the baby, although I really do think that breastfeeding is the best way to go if the mother is making healthy food choices for her self. There are a lot of mothers in my homeschool group that are strong avicates for breast feeding, and one of them were almost condeming the mothers that were affected by Huricane Katrina for worring about formula when a lot of them could be breastfeeding, but I thought to my self when I read the e-mail and thought to my self, even if some of the mothers in those dire hours did breast feed, the conditions were terrible, they were probably de-hydrated (making it hard to produce milk) and they hadn't showered and thier skin could have been in contact with that contaminated water.--I am sorry about my venting here. Its just that the breastfeeding thing made me think about the other comment that some one in my Tucson homeschool group made.
I'm a big breastfeeding proponent. I think it's the right thing to do and I think there are very, very, very few instances that require a mother not to nurse; however, I wasn't commenting for any other reason than to be grateful that I never had to make that kind of choice. I wasn't taking alcohol into account at all....I was merely focusing on the battle to buy formula or not.
I forgot to mention about nursing in the wake of Katrina. I would think that it would still have been better to nurse a child there than to not have formula or water to mix formula with. I really hadn't pondered that too much. I also don't have TV so my news is online or the radio periodically....I don't have alot of information about how they were dealing with that situation other than they were trying to get formula down there.
Becky, I think you made a good point. If she was sent out by her boyfriend to buy his beer, she could have been in serious trouble if she came home without it. And the baby could have been in trouble, too, if he felt it was the baby's fault he didn't get his beer.
Men are like that. On another board they are discussing breast feeding. A woman said her husband wanted her to wean the 1 1/2 year old. Another commented that her husband pushes for that when she doesn't give him enough seks( misspelled on purpose). Let me get this right. The pervert is jealous of his child suckling its mother's breast because he himself can't have seks with her??? Helloooo, jackal. The baby is eating, not fornicating. What is wrong with these men??? On this same board, though,some of these women advocate breast feeding children as old as 10. The more I read, the stranger they all seemed. How backwoods can you get? One lady said she gladly nurses her 6 yr old in public. Does she do it in the lunchroom on school days??? For those of you with a 9, 10 or 11 year old- can you imagine nursing them???
I nursed my firstborn till he weaned himself at 30 months and my dd was 20 months when she didn't need it anymore. It's my personal opinion that when a child is much older than 3 years the mom probably has more to do with the child still breastfeeding than the child does. I question the motives of women who nurse even 4 year olds and beyond that seems vulgar. It's funny this came up cuz in Sunday School this week we read about Hannah and we talked about her not taking Samuel to the priests till he was weaned...most Bible scholars take this to mean about 3yo (and I agree cuz that is the time a child will usually have weaned themselves and women understand why some animals eat their young) but I was astonished to hear that other scholars assume that he was closer to 6. In our society I'm continually amazed at the dads who discourage breastfeeding for selfish reasons.....but has anyone thought about how many moms don't breastfeed for the same reasons? And I don't know about you guys, but intimacy never suffered when I had infants . Some things might not be as appealing, but we never chucked the whole idea just because of those two apparatus. :lol:
I cannot, cannot imagine nursing an older child. My gosh, what do you tell the teachers they have?? One lady on there did say she nurses her 6 year old because she wants to. I know it's a pleasant feeling to nurse a baby, but yeesh! Maybe I should start nursing both my kids again just for the weightloss component!!
Yes, it's pleasant to nurse a BABY, but I cannot imagine it's pleasant to have a 5YO attached to you!
I think you all have said enough of what was going through my mind. IMHO, if a child can ask for it, then they are obviously a little too old for it. Just my opinion. What board was this Becky? Did all these women think it was ok to breastfeed a child until puberty? I will humbly admit that I did not breastfeed my son for personal reasons of my own (a traumatic past event). But even if I would have started I would have had to stop because he was allergic to milk based everything. Our next child I am seriously debating to nurse because of the positive affects and the fact that's it's free (can't beat that). My husband WANTS me to if we have another one because he's so worried about money all the time. I am also wondering about this child in the store though. Was she of walking age, like 1-1 1/2? If so, she probably was on table foods and drinking regular cows milk maybe? If not, then it just breaks me heart that some children (probably too many to count) have to live a life where they are considered less of a priority than booze.
What a sad sad story. Jen, On a side note, if you do decide to BF and have issues with dairy consumption please email me as I have a lot of experience with BF and avoiding dairy due to dairy sensitive kids. My firstborn weaned herself at 39 months, my middle at 30 months and my 7 month old is my littlest nursling! According to the WHO, average age of weaning worldwide is 4 years old. Kids are reported to be nursed up to age 7 in some areas of the globe. As for my random thoughts of bf'ing during horrific events...I always worry when I fly that if the plane crashes and I survive will I be forced to share my milk. My paranoia hopes that help would be soon on its way because I don't want to even contemplate the headlines there. Laura
:lol:...sorry, Laura, you might not have meant that last line to be funny, but it made a fellow/former nursing mom laugh. Hopefully you can express by hand :shock:. I have read alot about breastfeeding in third world countries. The general theme was it was being used as birthcontrol...which is why I commented that it seems to be the mom's thing at that point more than the child...although it is also nourishment for otherwise starving children. In those cases, you have to do what you have to do.
