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[harry]

I'm curious--how would we respond if the situation was not a faculty colleague but a student who brought their four-month-old to class? I've had the occasional pregnant student, and this semester I briefly had one of my advisees enroll in a 20-person class and bring along her five-month-old daughter (who sat quietly in a sling) while the mother took notes, participated in class, etc.

Many of the same arguments made against the faculty member could be made against a student in our classes--it's disruptive, "class is for class, not for day care," etc. So too with the arguments against--is every class really that important?, other students check email on their laptops during class, etc.

I'm not trying to bait anyone here. It just struck me that in the abstract many of the same arguments could be applied. But would we?

[fiona]

I love the breast feeding cat offshoot in this thread (I need a better pun than offshoot, yes).

Breastfeeding everyone at a faculty meeting would calm them down a lot. Spork is onto something deep and fulfilling.

The Fiona

[expatinuk]

I once had orphaned kittens... I brought them to work... I actually DIDN'T breastfeed them but I did bottle feed them. It was very disruptive.

I didn't play helicopter with them, but everyone coo'd over how cute they were.

[qrypt]

Breastfeeding kittens - ah, a well-known porn specialty in Moldova and southern Ukraine.  I think they're especially fond of those hairless kittens like the one "Rachel" had on Friends.

[anthroid]

I'm curious--how would we respond if the situation was not a faculty colleague but a student who brought their four-month-old to class? I've had the occasional pregnant student, and this semester I briefly had one of my advisees enroll in a 20-person class and bring along her five-month-old daughter (who sat quietly in a sling) while the mother took notes, participated in class, etc.

Many of the same arguments made against the faculty member could be made against a student in our classes--it's disruptive, "class is for class, not for day care," etc. So too with the arguments against--is every class really that important?, other students check email on their laptops during class, etc.

I'm not trying to bait anyone here. It just struck me that in the abstract many of the same arguments could be applied. But would we?

There's a thread on this topic right this instant over in In The Classroom.  Why don't you take a look at that for answers to your questions?

[prof_mom]

Why are so many people assuming the OP is a man?

Which "so many" posters are you referring to?  Most of the posts have been carefully neutral on this score (though many have jumped to the assumption that the breastfeeding colleague was female). - DvF

Prof_mom and grypt on 9/9 and I don't feel like going back any farther.

grypt was probably using the "he" generically, and prof_mom was replying to grypt and just used the same pronoun, which is perfectly reasonable.  Nobody else used language that wasn't gender-neutral.  Your trigger finger is too itchy. - DvF

The trigger finger is itchy and DvF's scenario is plausible.

I simply cannot let anyone believe that I condone the use of he as a generic pronoun. Oh, my no! He is very gender specific.

I imagined grypt had read something in the thread that I missed indicating the OP was male and went along with it.

I do support breast feeding and believe women should be able to breast feed their children for as long as whey wish and wherever they are comfortable. I do not feel the same way about human women breast feeding cats.  I would rather not know about that.

[shastymcnasty]

I'm curious--how would we respond if the situation was not a faculty colleague but a student who brought their four-month-old to class? I've had the occasional pregnant student, and this semester I briefly had one of my advisees enroll in a 20-person class and bring along her five-month-old daughter (who sat quietly in a sling) while the mother took notes, participated in class, etc.

Many of the same arguments made against the faculty member could be made against a student in our classes--it's disruptive, "class is for class, not for day care," etc. So too with the arguments against--is every class really that important?, other students check email on their laptops during class, etc.

I'm not trying to bait anyone here. It just struck me that in the abstract many of the same arguments could be applied. But would we?

In the scenario you outline, I would publicly laud the student's mother for displaying the kind of family values that we need in this country. 

[harry]

Anthroid--thanks. Didn't happen to look, largely because I was trying to wind down from caffeine at 2am. Will head over there.