A portion of my days are spent attached to a breast pump in order to feed smallish human. It’s a glorious and dignified process. (No it isn’t.)
This morning, attached to aforementioned pump, the four year old walks in. The idea of me feeding the baby “from my boobs” fascinated her, of course, because she is a curious four year old and it is a new thing for mommy to be waving her boobs around. (I am not really waving my boobs around.)
As curious as she is, she is not impressed by the pump. She looks at it with a horrified facial expression. Sometimes she makes really flattering comments including phrases like “hangy boobs”, because that’s what ever woman wants to hear. (No it isn’t.) She has also learned how to take advantage of the time mommy is immobilized to hide food in her room or glitter glue all of her toys on my living room carpet. But that’s a topic for another day.
This morning, she walked in as I was re-layering after pumping.
“Hahahah! Your boobs look funny!” she announced.
I laughed (kind of) at her response and said, “Yes, they do look a little different after pumping don’t they.”
Let be clear. I was not waving my boons about. In fact, I was working to be extra discreet given her horrified reactions in the past.
“Let me see them.” she demanded.
Believe it or not I’m actually a pretty modest person. I work to teach her not to be ashamed of her body by not being ashamed of mine in front of her and by teaching her that the human body is amazing and beautiful. Still, putting my boobs on display for a preschooler who says everything she thinks out loud (and then tells others about it later) is not within my comfort zone.
“No,” I said. “I’m don’t feel like showing my boobs to you right now.”
And that, my friends, is the quote that inspired this blog post.