Breastfeeding Woman Gets Harassed At Starbucks, Awesome Teen Barista Comes To The Rescue

I always feel like we have to eventually stop reading stories about women getting harassed while breastfeeding, don’t we? How long can this continue to be a thing? I simply can’t wrap my brain around someone being so offended by a breastfeeding woman that she would go up to the counter at a Starbucks and complain. But that’s what happened in Ottawa this week.

Julia Wykes dropped into Starbucks with the intention of grabbing a drink to go, but when her baby became fussy she decided to feed him. She grabbed a seat by the register because there weren’t many available. Moments after she started breastfeeding she heard a woman’s voice complaining to the barista at the counter:

Could you get that woman to stop doing that in public. It is disgusting!

Wykes heard the barista tell the woman he would “take care of it” and was bracing herself for what was to come. The barista, a young man in his late teens, walked up to Wykes and gave her a free refill and a voucher for a free drink in the future. He also apologized for the actions of the horrible woman who complained in the first place. Horrible woman, witnessing what went down, left in a huff.

I love hearing stories like this. What a cool young man. Wykes shared her story with a friend in her local attachment parenting group, who also happens to run a very popular parenting site. The friend posted this to Facebook:

With over 36,000 members on her site, the story spread throughout the internet pretty quickly. I’m glad. I think women like the awful one who felt the need to publicly shame a breastfeeding mother need to have the public shaming turned right around on themselves. If you have a problem with breastfeeding in public, too bad. It’s legal and women simply aren’t going to be pushed around or made to feel bad for it. Enough is enough.

Also – that kid rocks.

(photo: Facebook)