Shocking!!

My childhood best friend's mom is one of the head people in this Catholic prayer group that is held quarterly.  Most of the women in the group are my grandparents generation, a good number are my parent's generation, and a very small portion are my generation.  I was raised practically part of this very large Catholic family, and to be 100% honest, I always felt judged.  My friend's mom would make her go to Catholic Mass every Sunday.  If she spent a Saturday night with us, we'd go to church the next morning.  She would then have to return home before evening Mass because our church didn't count (we were Methodist).  Anyway, just a little back story thrown in there.

So the mom calls me and says they need a babysitter for these quarterly meetings.  I agree because I can use any income possible.  There was only one family who needed my services so it was a pretty smooth event.  The one thing I was SHOCKED about was the way it was assumed I was nursing.  For a "culture" that I felt had always judged me, I was surprised that so many of them #1 asked me about it and #2 were pro-breastfeeding.  The majority of these women came from a generation where formula feeding was the only acceptable practice.  On top of that, they're from an uber conservative sect of the population, a sect that believes sexual intercourse should be for procreation and not pleasure.  So I found it odd that in this large group of women, carrying their Bibles and Rosaries, so many women asked/assumed I was nursing.  One woman even brought me a heaping plate of food, even after I insisted I'd eaten and brought my own snacks.  Seriously, I ate as much of it as I could.  My friend came in and noted that what I had left on my plate was more than she'd been given to begin with.

I was really quite shocked and pleased to hear so many women asking about and encouraging nursing.  :)

On a side note...is it bad that I mentally wished against an old lady who said she was praying that Squirmy would become a priest?