Adrienne Pine is an American University professor under fire for bringing her sick baby to class with her and nursing the baby while also teaching. Naturally, people are furious and up in arms over her "inappropriate" behavior. But I say: you go mom. She had little choice and she did what she had to do.
In general, we need to be more supportive of these situations as a culture.
Having a baby is a 24/7 kind of job. Even those of us who have full-time jobs outside of our families are also full-time moms. Having two such rigorous "jobs" can often conflict. Sometimes we moms have to multitask.
The irony, of course, is that it was during a Sex, Gender, and Culture class. Here is our culture right now. Moms have basically no leeway.
As a working mom, sometimes you feel damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you take a sick day (especially on the first day of school as a professor), you are seen as not dedicated to your work. If you don't take a sick day and stay home, you are a bad mom. Then add in the bit about her being a single mom? Her choices were limited.
I am not saying it's the ideal to bring a sick baby to class and let him or her crawl around and spread germs. But I am saying working moms sometimes have to do what they have to do. It's all a balancing act, and I wish we lived in a society where we could cut each other some slack.
I have no idea what the tenure process is like at AU or even if Professor Pine was on that track. But I do know that when a mom takes off work for a sick kid, people automatically grumble. She is a slacker. She doesn't take her work seriously. Childless people are forced to "pick up her slack." It's the oldest load of crap.
It's hard out there for working parent, but particularly for a single nursing mother.
What she did wasn't ideal. It wasn't even probably the best move. But it was understandable. Until sick days are respected and no one secretly (or overtly) makes bad comments about a woman's "dedication" should she use them, then I say she did what she had to do. I support her.
Do you think what Professor Pine did was wrong?
Image via Cherice/Flickr
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Comments 72
She had a choice
Stay home with her sick infant or find care for him
I am all for breastfeeding but come on!! that was her job and she should have treated the class proffessionally.
You know what's not only inappropriate, but utterly asinine? Bringing a sick baby to a college classroom. This woman was obviously just trying to see how far she could push the feminist envelope. Such an ass. I hope she gets fired and someone who can appreciate the job and do it and the students the attention and professionalism they deserve.
Absoblutely.There is a time and a place for everything. I have no problem with NIP, but you do not nurse while you are working. If she had a sick baby she could have stayed home. If you reported the whole article, you would know that she had time accrued and could have taken a paid sick day to take care of her baby, but instead she was trying to make a point, and I think it failed miserably. If she's a single mom, that's tough, but just because she is single doesn't she mean can nurse everywhere and ON the job. A single mother pilot couldn't nurse while she's flying a plane. These students are paying a lot of money to be taught , not to watch their professor play mommy.
It was utterly idiotic to bring a sick baby to the classroom. THAT is my issue. Frankly, doing anything to distract from her teaching is an issue, the students would have been better off having the class cancelled.
Her only option was not to cancel class, she had a TA who could have well taught the first day of class. She had to stop multiple times , on the notice and the words of her students that her baby had a paper clip in its mouth, or was going near the electrical outlet, etc, which shows that the students were distracted by the baby. I would be annoyed and mad if I'm paying somewhere in the range of $300-500 per credit to watch a baby crawl around, or the professor not paying full attention to what she's teaching because she tending to her baby in the middle of a class . Part of being a parent is being responsible. If you have sick baby, you do not bring it to a classroom full of adults, you make the sacrifice and you stay home. Can't afford or find a sitter, then take a sick day, and leave the class to the TA. She was more concerned about her tenure, than anything else.
I am all for breastfeeding wherever a woman needs to, but doing so while teaching a class I feel is crossing the line. You can't use the argument "If you don't want to see it, look away"(which is what I've said when people get upset about a woman breastfeeding in public). You are literally expected to watch your teacher when she is teaching you. I am all for breast being best(really, I am all for any mother making the best choice for her and her child, whatever that may be) but I don't particularly want to sit and basically watch a woman breastfeed. I feel like it would be kind of distracting as would a baby all by itself. How could anyone pay attention to a lecture with a cute lil baby there? :) And after reading the original article, I don't see how the students could have possibly not been distracted. She interrupted the lecture numerous times to tend to her child.
I think in this situation it may have been more appropriate to delay class for 10 minutes or so while the baby was fed and then start up class. I have no problem breastfeeding in public whatsoever, but for me it would be a bit much to teach a class and have every eye on me while I was breastfeeding. I totally respect that she is taking care of her sick infant and didn't want to miss the first day of class, but delaying the class while the baby ate wouldn't be the end of the world.
Sorry but she wasn't "doing what she had to do", she was being idiotic and selfish.
1. WHO in their right mind, takes a SICK child into that type of situation. Not only is the immune system of the child already fighting off one sickness, you just go a head and throw them in to the cess pool that is a college campus?
2. She shouldn't have been nursing while she was teaching. That is just plain unprofessional on so many levels, and also unfair to her students. If I'm paying hundreds of dollars to attend a class, my professor better not be distracted.