Monday, March 2, 2009

Multi Tasking Mama Drives and Breastfeeds

The blogisphere is abuzz today with the story of the Ohio woman who was cited Saturday by police for breastfeeding her daughter while driving and talking on her cell phone. Talk about multi-tasking! This makes a DUI look like a walk in the park.

A fellow motorist noticed and called police on HIS cellphone to turn her in.Evidently, she had the baby in her lap, its head only inches from the steering wheel as she tooled along the highway nursing and chatting away. Her three older children were in the back seat. She was driving them to school.

It gets better. When police wrote her up for violation of the child restraint and child endangerment laws, she was indignant, claiming that she was not about to let her baby go hungry-- yeah well, better a hungry baby than a dead one.

I'm feeling very judgemental about this, I must admit. I'm a mother too and I know how hectic it can all get and I too did some stupid things when my kids were little and got away with it--but this is ridiculous. I hope this dizzy dame stops being defensive and learns her lesson. Next time, maybe she'll pull over to the side of the road if she can't bear to hear the baby cry. So what if the older kids are a little late for school?

I hope she changes her multi-tasking ways or she's going to end up winning a Darwin Award.


source:http://www.whiotv.com/irresistible/18831330/detail.html#-

5 comments:

Kathryn Skaggs said...

Hey, I'm all about exceptions to rules, but NOT when it comes to the safety of an infant! Fine, drive with your dog on your lap -- that's bad enough, but your baby? Nope - no excuses for this one. We should all be grateful that this mother was caught and pulled over.

It makes you wonder, how many other women might be doing the same dumb thing? I can totally relate to when a baby cries in a car... relentlessly. If the child must eat -- PULL OVER!

tDMg

JamaGenie said...

What happened to **both hands on the wheel*, or is that just for us old fogeys who remember a car is a lethal weapon on wheels? Was bad enuff that I have to watch out for drivers chatting away on cells, now I have to watch out for breast-feeding moms on cells too? Because you betcha there are others out there doing it or something equally *dangerous* that endangers the rest of us.

JamaGenie said...

And *furthermore*...lol...if she was driving the 3 older kids to school, that means she probably got up late and there wasn't time to feed the wee one at home. So set the alarm earlier already. Don't tell me about how new moms don't get enough sleep as it is. Been there, done that, but would never ever consider bf-ing a baby while driving! Hope Child Services is investigating this woman!

Unknown said...

whew ladies-- thanks for your comments. Funny how something like this pushes a mommy button, isn't it? I wonder if men or childless women get equally upset. It's some basic, primal mommy instinct in us I think.

In any case, I am not questioning this woman's basic fitness as a mother, just her judgement as a human being and I see this as the dark side of multi-tasking. I'm hoping it will end here and that she'll pay her fine and not do it again. Thanks to both of you for adding your two cents:-)

Frieda Babbley said...

Darwin award for sure. Jeesh, she's probably already a contender. I know I've been so sleep deprived and whacked out during my 9 years of babies and breastfeeding, but that just is sooo not right. Not to mention, that doesn't par well for breastfeeding mothers who are having a hard enough time as it is, in most places, being accepted. Hmmm. Great topic.