Any mom knows that the day starts at dawn and doesn't stop until everyone is sound asleep. Between wiping noses and wiping butts there is hardly time to sit down or even eat (unless it is the leftovers off a high chair tray). But any mom that has to deal with going to work as well as take care of everything at home knows that the combination of these two things adds a level of chaos. This chaos is maximized if you are a breastfeeding mom who has to pump at work. I fall into this category.
At work there isn't a desginated "mom" room...so we are left to fend for our breast-feeding selves. Some women pump in their car, some in the bathroom, one women even had to do it behind a shower curtain. Lucky for me, I have a locking office. Unluckily, though, even if the office is locked, people can come in through the adjoining classrooms. So every day this week I was "busted" in on during my pumpin'. The first two visitors were women so I wasn't too concerned. My last visitor - and the one that kind of iced the cake - was a man who didn't leave when I told him I was pumping and proceeded to sit and have a 20 minute conversation with the lovely sound of the pump keeping in tune with his words. I was mortified! Mostly because throughout the conversation, I became increasingly more aware that my hooter-hider wasn't in position and I was a little 'al fresco'. And to top that off....the conversation was certainly slowing the flow.
I talked this situation over with a coworker and decided that an all staff email should be sent out to kind of make everyone aware that if the door is locked, please don't knock...and definitely don't come in through the side door - because, no matter who you are, a locked door doesn't mean "please try a different way in". So I send the email out...and it wasn't five minutes before responses were flooding my in box. Women were understanding, Men were freaked out. No eye contact is made now when it comes to the male workers on campus, unless it is because I am the butt of all jokes. Oh well! Better to be made fun of than to get busted in on.
The lesson is that we breastfeeding-working the 9 to 5 and at home-moms are pumpin' with a purpose and our little sugar-pie-pops are going to be that much more well-off for us doing so....right? Right!
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