Entitled Mom ‘Kicked Out’ Of Crowded Concert For Endangering Baby Claims Breastfeeding Discrimination
A California mother is claiming that police “threw her out” of a Brad Paisley concert for breastfeeding, but the cops are telling a different story. According to the woman, 30-year-old Megan Christopherson, a security guard photographed her nursing her 4-month-old daughter and soon after requested that she stop, due to complaints from other concert-goers. It was after this incident that she claims Chula Vista police confronted her about where she was sitting, a confrontation she recorded on her cell phone and uploaded to YouTube (though it has since been removed). She believes she was ultimately discriminated against for breastfeeding, an accusation I’m not buying for a second.
According to CVPD, Christopherson was situated in the pit area, which anyone who has ever been to a concert knows is NOT a great place to be with young children or infants (and Christopherson has one of each with her). The pit area is only a few feet away from the speakers, and concern-goers often surge into the area during shows. Adults have been crushed during particularly bad situations, so what parent in their right mind would think this is safe for a 4-month-old?
You could see in Christopherson’s own video that the officers warned the young mom about these same dangers, as well as potential noise-related harm from the speakers. According to NBC Los Angeles,:
”Your child doesn’t have hearing protection on. The crowd is going to start surging forward. Where you’re at, your child could get crushed,” a security officer told the mother on the video. ”We’re afraid of your child’s eardrums being hurt.”
Of course, since being a mom apparently makes you a noise and hearing expert, Christopherson argued that her child was fine, since she had recently taken the child to a Tim McGraw concert at the same venue and experienced no issues with security. Yup, because if you get away with it once, it suddenly becomes not-dangerous. Got it.
The officers were unmoved, and gave Christopherson two options; relocate to a safer area or leave and receive a full refund. She reluctantly chose the second option, but is now accusing the venue of discriminating against breastfeeding mothers. The police deny that breastfeeding had anything to do with her ousting, however. According to NBC LA:
”The Chula Vista Police Department’s involvement in the incident was due to the welfare and safety of the infant and not due to a mother’s legal right to breastfeed in public,” it said in a statement released Friday.”
NBC LA also spoke with Christopherson, who insists that breastfeeding was the real reason she was asked to move or leave:
”I’m shocked. I’m disgusted at our society that women are shamed into nursing in bathrooms or their cars or feeding their baby a bottle only, because they’re scared to nurse in public,” she said.
Christopherson believes officers removed her for breastfeeding in public but “covered it up” by claiming it was due to the safety of her baby.
”It was completely a cop-out. They’re trying to cover this up because they know they legally can’t remove me for nursing,” she added.
The mother insisted baby Gracie was never uncomfortable in the pit or in danger.
”She was actually on video completely content, sleeping away,” said Christopherson. ”I trust my motherly instinct that if my baby’s ears hurt, she would cry, and then I would move. She was sleeping contently.”
Christopherson makes a great soundbite, but honestly it sounds to me like this mom has a bad case of sour grapes and is using the breastfeeding issue as a way to bitch about not getting her away at the concert. The cops didn’t “remove her,” they gave her a perfectly reasonable option of moving to a safer area in the venue, which she refused. How would moving her closer to different concert-goers solve their problem if the only issue they had was her nursing?
And seriously, I hate it when moms pull out the old “my motherly instinct” to excuse shitty behavior. This is bullshit, and she knows it. A “mother’s instinct” isn’t going to tell her if her child’s hearing is being damaged, and it’s not going to save her baby if a hundred concert-goers surge into the pit and crush them both. And I bet she’d be the first one suing the venue if that were to happen. Because entitlement is entitlement, regardless of how its filled.
(Photo: Svitlana/Shutterstock)