Mom's Shocking Photo on Santa's Lap Entirely Misses the Point

A Canadian mother is dumbfounded that a Christmas photo she took "in jest" is causing an uproar on social media. The image in question (see above) is a modern take on the Santa photo. It features the mother nursing her son while sitting on a stunned (and finger-pointing) Santa's lap. The caption, emblazoned on the image, reads, "All I Want For Christmas ... Is a Happy, Healthy Baby."

According to Rebecca Dunbar, while she was waiting in line for a traditional Santa photo op, one of her twins became fussy, so she started to nurse him. She then came up with the idea, and a friend who was waiting with her encouraged her to do it.

"I asked the photographer if he'd be OK taking the picture and he said, 'yeah, for sure, if it was OK with Santa,'" Dunbar told The Canadian Press. "And Santa said 'it's been 40 years and never had a question like that, but why not.'"

So she posed for the photo with her other twin, posted the photo on Facebook, and ducked when incoming criticism came flying her way.

Though Dunbar said she only hoped to normalize the act of breastfeeding and wished people wouldn't think twice about it, I beg to differ. I'm a big breastfeeding rights advocate. I'm all for public breastfeeding, brelfies, and the like. But it seems to me that Dunbar was simply looking for some attention, and now that she's got it (she says 75 percent of the reaction has been negative and she's had to change her Facebook settings), she seems to be backtracking a bit.

While there's no need for the collective Internet to be calling her "trashy," her point is entirely missed by the shock value of the image. Dunbar said, "It is quite disappointing that people are so negative about it when it's not meant to be that way. Partly, it was just to be funny."

But I tend to be of the opinion that there's a time and a place for everything. As one person tweeted: