Nurse In at Lily O'Briens Cafe NYC Sat Nov 7th

[JerBearsMama]

Wow! Go Mamas Go!! I am in MD and I so wish I had the money to drive up to NYC for the day to do this. if it was on a weekend when DH could come too, I'd def be in b/c DH has never been to NYC and I haven't been in 7 years or so.

[LilyandLucysLady]

I'll be there in spirit , or by skype if that all works out pm me if it does! GL to all of you and stick it to the anti boob man!

[LilyandLucysLady]

I cant believe I just said anti boob and man in the same sentence!

[JerBearsMama]

Originally Posted by LilyandLucysLady I cant believe I just said anti boob and man in the same sentence!

[Dee18a]

Definately keep me updated! I'm only 30 min away by train.

[lovespepper]

I'm nearby, but a weekend would be better. GL

[Mama2b2Caden]

This is so great you are doing this!

I wanted to do this SO badly in my area last year. To make a long story short, I lost THREE restaurant jobs after Caden was born and I KNOW all three times I got fired because of Pumping. My original job that I came back to after having DS made me sign a "contract" on a bev-nap saying that I wouldn't ask to pump between the hours of 11am-2pm, during the so called lunch rush. Even if there was NOTHING going on at say..1pm, I had to wait until 2 to meekly knock on the office door and ask the manager if I could go pump my boobies. I kept my pump bag in the office but you bet your butt they didn't actually let me pump in there. At first they wanted me to use the employee bathroom, which was disgusting and never cleaned and I would have had to sit on a toilet, but I refused and pumped on a nice stool in the handicap stall in the ladies room. This was a REALLY high end steak house, probably considered the best restaurant in the area.

The next place was a bar, and the manager there made me pump IN MY CAR in the parking lot!!!!!!!!! Then when he fired me, my mom called up there and he said it "just wasn't a good fit for a new mother." !!!!!!!!! I did NOTHING wrong at all, he just called me and told me it wasn't working out!

Then I got a job at a new restaurant. I did the whole week long training, and helped open the place. We were there for up to 18 hours a day, so of course I had to bring my PIS and find a place to pump several times a day. At this point DS was only about 6 months old or so on exclusively BFing. Well, when we were training at the hotel before the actual restaurant passed the inspection, it wasn't a big deal- I would just sneak off during "smoke breaks" (yeah, its considered completely normal for restaurant employees to take several breaks to smoke a cigarette during a shift, but not to pump milk to nourish their baby!) and just pump in the bathroom at the hotel. But when we got into the restaurant and actually opened and all, one day the manager stopped me while I was walking in and pointed to my big ole medela bag and told me to bring it back to my car and that he "never wanted to see that THING in his restaurant again." He wasn't even the owner, just the GM. I put it in the car that day and went 12 hours without pumping, thinking he was just stressed and not to push it, but continued to bring the pump to work and pump in the employee restroom but ONLY when all of my tables were gone and my section closed! One day, however, the bathroom was a mess. There was urine on the floor and there was no where clean for me to put my pump. The sink was disgusting and I didn't feel comfortable rinsing my pump parts in it, so I used to family bathroom instead. When he fired me the next day I BEGGED him not to, I told him I would do anything. So he made me polish glasses for 8 hours the next night. It was so hard, and I couldn't keep up with all the glasses. He kept yelling at me to go faster and my wrists and back were killing me. It was so hot in the kitchen and he made me wear my entire serving uniform with jacket and tie, and sweat just dripped down my face all night. The next morning I couldn barely move my wrists. When I came in that night, he told me I would be bussing tables on the patio. This was even more demeaning than the kitchen helper. I was a fine dining server. I have a level one sommolier. I had repeat guests coming in and asking for my section. But I was forced to bus tables with the teenage boys and people who couldn't speak english. I refused so when I filed with the EEOC he claimed I wasn't fired, I quit!!!

I SOOOOOOOO badly wanted to organize a nurse in at that restaurant. I can just imagine the look on that guys face when all these women wipped out their boobies and nursed their babies in his beautifully appointed dining rooms!!!! *sigh* in my dreams.

It is SO great you are doing this! I really wish I could. Now that Caden is almost 2 I try not to nurse in public- not because I am ashamed- but because Caden gets so distracted, he will nurse a few seconds and then sit up and look around and there is my bare breast hanging in the wind for all to see. And after a pregnancy and 2 years of nursing, it is NOT a pretty sight!!!

Good luck, and take pictures!!! (not of the nursing moms, but of the managers face!!!)

[nikichickee]

OH Dee that would be awesome! I could even hand deliver your longies

oops I just realized I posted it as the 4th it is Saturday Nov 7th

We have Julia Taylor the actual woman kicked out of the cafe joining us, and Ann Varney of ABC, AND Andrea Day of Fox 5 broadcasting it!

[nikichickee]

Lisa I'm so sorry that happened to you I would have sued their @sses to next Tuesday!

[nikichickee]

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