A man who requests a breastfeeding mother to sit at a different table receives an immediate backlash on Reddit
Another day, another man uncomfortable in the presence of a mother caring for her child. The topic of today’s Reddit story comes from the AITA (Am I the A**hole?) forum, where members describe scenarios and inquire if they were correct or incorrect.
Story
The following question was asked by a user with the username Chance_Object_7968, which has since been suspended:
“I (27M) work a job that allows a very good amount of time for a lunch break. So much in fact that I’ll regularly head down to a cafe (I really don’t know ifs it a cafe but it’s about pretty small so yeah) and sit and have something while with the time I have for the break. Keep in mind, for some reason this place is almost always busy.
“It just so happened that today a woman (early-mid 20sF?) came inside with a baby and it was so busy that it looked like there was only like 2 open seats available, 1 of which happened to be the sit across from my small table. This women asked if she can sit at the table. The other table was under the air conditioner so understandable. I said yes because what harm would it have done otherwise? So a little bit goes by and her baby starts crying, so she takes a breast out and starts breastfeeding. Obviously I’m just avoiding all eye contact but it got so uncomfortable that I ended up asking if she might be able to see if she can sit at the other table. I’m just trying to sit here, drink this cup of coffee, finish reading in my portfolio and leave. The woman looked sorry and really just said she couldn’t and the baby was already eating (feeding?, idk) so I just downed the coffee, and started to leave. A few people looked at me like I was a douche and it’s been bothering me. I know it’s a natural thing for baby’s and moms and that there’s nothing I can do. I wasn’t going to try and force her away so I left. Was it too far to ask if she may have sat at the other table. Idk I feel like I was an asshole thinking about it now. But I just didn’t know what to say when a random women is breastfeeding 3 feet away.
Was I the a**hole here?”
Responses
To say the least, the whole Reddit community was outraged by this man’s conduct. People respond with NTA (Not the Ahole) when they support the individual who posts their tale. When they aren’t supportive and criticize the person’s activities, they respond with YTA (You’re the Ahole.)
Most_Poet answered:
“Yes. 1000% yes YTA. This woman probably got two hours of sleep last night, has a crushingly awful mix of hormones in her body, she tried to escape and do ONE adult thing for herself, only to have to feed her crying baby and then you give her a hard time?
I get that not everyone grows up comfortable around bodies and nudity but bro. Breastfeeding is 0% sexual. And if it really bothered you, you should’ve moved to the less desirable spot. Everyone was looking at you weirdly because YTA. Please do better next time – she deserves empathy, which was decidedly not what you gave her.”
Waste-Phase-2857 answered:
“And how ignorant can one be? You just don’t get up and move around when the baby already is feeding!!! There was another spot available, if OP felt uncomfortable he should have just moved there himself. But asking her to move AFTER the baby was already feeding? That’s an obvious YTA!”
Another user:
“Why couldn’t YOU move to the other table if YOU were uncomfortable as opposed to asking the lady with something attached to her boob to just get up and move? YTA”
The mother of this story is overwhelmingly supported in the comments on this user’s post, and rightly so.
All of the YTAs he won from the community are well-deserved. Breastfeeding is a normal aspect of life; a woman must feed her child; it’s as simple as that. If someone feels uncomfortable with it, they should move out of the way and consider why they are uncomfortable with something natural and caring.
