Thanks to the global health crisis, 2020 has certainly become the year of the video meeting. And because many people work from home while wrangling their kids, they are rapidly learning video chat etiquette. For instance, is it acceptable to breastfeed your baby during video meetings? That's the question one Redditor is asking after he noticed his coworker nursing online.
This has been happening often at their morning meetings.
Technically no one needs to have their camera on during the meeting, the man explained on Reddit.
Sure, some people might show up in pajamas and other people might be munching on their morning cereal.
But one coworker has been consistently taking care of another daily task: breastfeeding her baby.
The poster doesn't deny that "babies need to be fed."
"But she doesn’t mute her mic or turn off video," he complained.
He and his coworkers don't see "the full boob" -- but she doesn't cover up either.
The OP tried to tactfully ask his coworker to cover up in a private message first. In his mind, all she had to do was turn off her video while feeding, or so he thought.
"She was livid," he wrote.
She had good reasons for feeling that way.
She told the OP that she feels like it's rude to talk without video "and she has the right to feed her baby."
So, who's right and who's being totally inappropriate?
Some people thought there was a time and a place for everything, and nursing during your morning meeting was not it.
"I don't expect to sit across the conference room table and watch someone breastfeed," one commenter wrote. "Zoom calls are the same thing. There is a time and place."
"If I was feeding a 2-year-old spaghetti, I wouldn't do it in front of a zoom conference either," a second commenter agreed. "She can turn off the camera."
"The mother could easily adjust her camera so it's only on her face if her baby's hungry at that exact moment," a third commenter chimed in. "Or she could pump and give the baby a bottle during the meeting. She has options besides breastfeeding on camera."
Other people pointed out that when babies are hungry, they have every right to eat.
"You’re right that breastfeeding has a time and a place, and that’s when the child is hungry," one person wrote. "The mother cannot control when that is."
"One thing a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that there are no conference rooms right now," a second commenter pointed out. "There are no nannies, daycares or babysitters. If there is no available adult to watch a baby, mom may have to decide between screaming infant and feeding infant. Some babies don’t have predictable schedules, so she may have been stuck in a bind. And the meeting may have been too important for her to excuse herself from."
"Maybe 'the [expletive]' is a little too strong, but you're definitely being juvenile," a third person agreed. "It's a boob and she's feeding her baby with it. I'm beyond my childbearing years but I do work in a white collar job and to be honest if you asked one of my colleagues to turn off the video while feeding I'd laugh at you."
Ultimately, the OP may have to just suck it up and realize that there is nothing sexual about breastfeeding. Sometimes, a boob is just a boob.
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