So you’ve done something dumb…
Mar 4, 2009 Self-Promotion
I’ve got a post up on the NYC Moms Blog today, would love it if you stopped by:
So you’ve done something dumb…
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: Genine Compton, Nadya Suleman, Octomom
And we’re back, with Genine Compton, the breastfeeding driver
Mar 2, 2009 What's Going On
I’m going to pretend for a moment that I’m the woman who was caught breastfeeding her child while driving. I’ve made a terrible mistake, had a huge lapse in judgment. Thank goodness nobody was hurt, especially my precious baby, whom I had propped on top of the airbag for a meal. It’s a blessing in disguise, really, that someone saw me and called the police. Sure, I’ve become a hot topic for judgmental, snarky moms, but I can handle it. And now CNN wants to come over and interview me. That’s great, because it will give me a chance to do a big mea culpa, swear never ever to do that again, and put this nasty and embarrassing incident behind me for good. Right? RIGHT?
Or, I could go on camera and make things a thousand times worse.
Ms. Compton appears to not have any common sense whatsoever – not concerning her children’s safety, not concerning keeping her mouth shut. She put her child between her and the steering wheel, meaning that if she had gotten into an accident, he baby would have been smooshed between her chest and the airbag. Airbags are not soft, cushiony pillows. They inflate in a fraction of a second and accident victims have said it feels like getting kicked in the face.
Ms. Compton had this to say about airbags: “If I’m in an accident and I’m in the seatbelt and the airbag deploys it’s the same difference. There’s no difference.” What does that even mean? Either CNN did a terrible job editing this interview, or they had to struggle to find even a few short coherent clips. What she didn’t say was “I now know that putting my baby anywhere near the airbag while driving was wrong and dangerous.”
She talks about how she’s pulled over to feed her baby while driving long distances. Here she seems to be falling into a trap that many people fall into: they think that driving a shorter distance, or driving close to home, is somehow safer. But I learned in driver’s ed that most accidents happen within a mile of home. If it’s not safe to breastfeed on a long drive, it’s not safe to breastfeed on a short drive. But nothing I’ve heard from this woman makes me think that she’s capable of making a logical connection such as that one.
“Walking down the street could be dangerous. I’m not gonna say that ‘Oh, this one incident was just gonna put us in harm’s way.” Seriously, she equates walking down the street with driving while breastfeeding a baby and talking on a cell phone. And she does not say that she won’t do it again. According to the reporter, she says that she’ll take the officer’s advice “under consideration” but may breastfeed and drive again.
I’m at a loss. If getting caught didn’t smarten her up, then what will it take?
As a mother, I make judgment calls every day. Do I leave the kids downstairs while I take a shower? Do I leave my son home alone for ten minutes while I drive a few blocks to pick up my daughter? Do I leave my daughter in the tub while I get the door? Do I let my son go into the boys’ bathroom alone while I take my daughter into the girls’?
Sure, part of the decision is based on my convenience. But I also weigh the likely risk to my kids, their growing independence, and their behavioral histories. The only thing that the breastfeeding driver took into consideration was her own convenience. The baby would not have starved to death if she had waited until she could pull over safely. She was being inconvenienced by the crying.
She made a mistake. We all do. But if she doesn’t learn from this mistake, then I worry about her kids going forward.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
PSA: Don’t Breastfeed While Driving [Selfish Mom]
I’m all for multi-tasking, but this woman is a boob [Selfish Mom]
I’m all for multi-tasking, but this woman is a boob
Feb 28, 2009 News
I’m a big multi-tasker. I can make lunches while drying the uniform pants I fogot to wash last night while checking my email while talking on the phone. And there have been plenty of times when I had to feed my kids in the car. Microwaved bagels with butter are a big one for us. Or dry cereal in a baggie. Or a Happy Meal (but no ketchup – I draw the line at letting the kids open ketchup packets in the car). And, I’ve breastfed my kids in the car. Parked. With the car completely off. And even that made me nervous. I called Saturn once trying to find out if the airbag would go off if I was parked and somebody hit me (I was never able to get a clear answer on that, so I did it in the back seat when possible).
But never, ever, in my wildest dreams, on my most harried, late, crazy day, did it ever occur to me even once for a split second to breastfeed my baby while driving. But apparently Genine Compton of Ohio thought that this was an OK thing to do. With her other children in the minivan, and her baby on the steering wheel having breakfast, she drove to her kids’ school. Oh, and as if that weren’t enough, she was also talking on her cell phone.
Luckily for her kids, another driver saw her, and called the police: “I’m following right behind her right now on Far Hills Avenue,” the caller said as he spoke to a Kettering dispatcher in a recording of his non-emergency call that was released by police on Friday, Feb. 27.
“I tried to say something to her. She literally has the little girl on the steering wheel and I said, ‘I can’t believe you have that kid in your lap’ and she said, ‘You want to pop your titty out and breastfeed this kid?’ That’s what she said to me. I’m like, ‘You can feed your kid when you stop.’ It’s like wet out here. It’s full of traffic. It’s ridiculous. She’s got like three other kids in the car.”
Wow.
The cops were very quick to point out that the fact that she was breastfeeding had nothing to do with the fact that she has been charged with child endangerment and unlawfully restraining a child. They said that even if the child had just been on her lap, the charges would have been the same. I’m sure they’re trying to avoid protests from moms who think they can breastfeed their kids anywhere, anytime, no matter what the situation, no exceptions. But clearly this was not about breastfeeding, it’s about safety.
You have to take a test to get the license to drive the mini-van, so I have to assume there’s no question on that test asking whether or not it’s OK to breastfeed your baby while driving. I guess whoever made the test assumed that that was the kind of thing a person would just know, just like you know not to stick your hand in a pot of boiling water. I mean, when I took the test to get my learners permit, there were no questions like these: “True or False: You should not put cruise control on and climb into the backseat and take a nap while driving.” Or “True or False: If you are low on gas, you can fill your tank with chocolate milk.” There are just some things that should be assumed.
But no, apparently it is no longer safe to assume that drivers will instinctively know not to whip out their boobs and prop their kids up on their steering wheels and grab their cell phones and put it in drive. And if this woman is making such a huge, horrible, dangerous mistake on this issue, what are the odds that all of her other decisions are OK? She faces jail or a fine or both. I’m not sure her kids will be better off if she’s in jail, but maybe a big fine will make her think twice before doing something like that again.
Dumbass.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Breastfeeding while driving gets woman a ticket [Dayton Daily News]
Tags: breastfeeding, breastfeeding while driving, Genine Compton, Ohio
