Parenting

Man Asks Breastfeeding Mom To Cover Up, She Offers Him A Cover For His Face

by Julie Scagell
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Image via Avery Lane

Breastfeeding mom’s response to man asking her to cover up is perfection

It is a tale as old as time (and we mean it’s getting really, really old, folks). It seems strangers still feel no shame asking mothers who are feeding their children to cover themselves so they can feel comfortable in public. Because when it comes to an adult’s comfort versus an infant, goddammit, that infant better take one for the team.

In this latest incident, new mother Avery Lane was asked to cover herself while she breastfed her two-month-old son. And she was not having it.

Lane was living on a military post and was visiting a local H&R Block location with a friend when the incident occurred. She posted about what happened on her Facebook page, saying, “So I was breastfeeding my 2 month old at a H&R Block on a military post when the manager asked me “Can you cover up with a towel or something?” Lane writes. “I was completely shocked so I raised my voice slightly and said ‘No but I have a muslin if you would like to cover your face. You must not know Georgia’s breastfeeding laws.’”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it’s done.

Oddly, the manager did not want to cover his face, which is strange because it’s so fun to have your face randomly covered for no reason. Instead, he asked Lane to leave the premises since he was helping her friend, not her. So Lane decided it was time to teach this guy a lesson. “I then called the Military Police so they could come and inform him of them,” Lane writes on her Facebook page. “I’m glad they came and informed him that he could not tell me to leave. Also one of the MPs told me that there is nothing wrong with a mother breastfeeding her child.”

Because, duh.

Lane has received overwhelming support on her page since the incident and also quite a few questions. She decided to post a follow up interview on YouTube to answer a few of them. Lane says she’s been asked repeatedly whether this manager should be fired. “No, I don’t want anyone to be fired from their job, their source of income,” Lane says in the video. She explains the situation warranted him to be educated and now that he has been, she feels it is over.

As for using covers in the future to avoid these types of scenarios from happening again? Lane responds with a resounding “No.” She also says several people commented that perhaps she could have just waited to feed her son until she got home. To this, Lane and millions of other mothers laughed and laughed and face palmed at the foolishness of it all. “My son doesn’t wait until it’s convenient for me to feed him,” she explains.

Thank you Avery for fighting the good fight to normalize breastfeeding and for taking the time to educate folks on why it is so important.

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