What is it about people (mainly men) and peeking when a woman is breastfeeding?  There is an entire industry built on helping a woman keep covered up while we breastfeed.  I get that while in public there is only so much that you can do to keep yourself covered, and even if you are covered it’s pretty obvious that you have your boob out underneath that pretty designed cover-up.  There’s also a whole social movement now days about a woman’s right to breastfeed in public (without a cover).  And I must say that during the early days of learning how to feed J in public my boobs were probably the subject of a lot of gawking.  Let’s face it, anyone who has breastfed a crying and wiggling munchkin in public has probably flashed more than their fair share of strangers.  I’m sure I have.

Early on in the adventures of breastfeeding when the little ones need to eat every hour or two, making it feel like you constantly have you boob out for the world to at least partial see (or imagine), you get used to people staring (or pretending not to stare) and I was so preoccupied trying to get J to actually latch on that I didn’t care who saw whatever they saw.  But now that J eats only a few times during the day there’s much less chance that I’ll need to breastfeed him when I’m not at home or at work.

At the office I have a door that closes as well as curtains on my window and blinds on my door as well.  So when J is feeding, I turn off my lights and close my door etc.  Apparently that is not enough to deter my co-workers or clients from thinking that I’m doing something worth peeking at.  Even with the knowledge that I have a small child who is either sleeping or eating when my lights are off and my door is closed, the men I work with can not resist the urge to peer through my window.  It’s like I’m a fish in a tank.  Even if I close the curtain to my window, it’s almost instinctual for them to try and catch a glance at what’s going on in the dark room.  Or as my hubby puts it – “men will try and see boob no matter what.” Oy.

So we came up with this:

“Door closed? Lights off? Then Lauren is UNAVAILABLE.  Please do not peek in the window.  Please do not tap, wave, knock, whistle or scratch at the door.”

Guess we’ll see if it works! Silly men…