Photo: CBS New York
A New York City woman is taking a stand for all nursing mothers out there, saying they should be shown a bit more leniency when it comes to where they’re parked.
Guillermina Rodriguez was recently driving downtown with her 3-month daughter Ileana, when she started to cry. Rodriguez was growing desperate because the child was obviously hungry and she was stuck in traffic, so she couldn’t breastfeed her. Eventually, she found a spot to park but she got fined, so she’s taking issue with that.
“There was an immense amount of traffic that took me like 45 minutes to an hour to just get from 42nd to 30th Street,” Rodriguez tells CBS New York. “I’m like almost crying because she’s crying and all I wanna do is pull over so I can attend to her. Even though I saw it was a commercial area, I was like, I’m not obstructing the traffic, let me just stay there and I can breastfeed the baby there.”
She parked her car and got into the back, so she could breastfeed. As she was doing it, she noticed a New York Police Department tow truck pulling in front of her, getting ready to tow her car. She managed to climb back into the front and honked the horn, but she still got a fine for parking in a commercial space.
She believes that, as a new mom and given that her child’s interests should rank above those of the city, she should have been given a pass. Just this once.
“Nursing should be urgent enough to exempt a fine,” she explains. “I think they should have been a little bit more sensitive. I feel like getting them a little more educated on that area will be a lot more helpful.”
However, as Rodriguez herself notes, the agent wrote her the ticket before he even knew what she was doing in the back of her car, so it’s not like he deliberately fined her while breastfeeding. Secondly, the NYPD says that parking agents don’t have the authority to null tickets they’d already issued, so the man really had no other choice but to leave it on the windshield.
Rodriguez plans to fight the ticket and hopes her judge will be a bit more understanding.
“There was an immense amount of traffic that took me like 45 minutes to an hour to just get from 42nd to 30th Street,” Rodriguez tells CBS New York. “I’m like almost crying because she’s crying and all I wanna do is pull over so I can attend to her. Even though I saw it was a commercial area, I was like, I’m not obstructing the traffic, let me just stay there and I can breastfeed the baby there.”
She parked her car and got into the back, so she could breastfeed. As she was doing it, she noticed a New York Police Department tow truck pulling in front of her, getting ready to tow her car. She managed to climb back into the front and honked the horn, but she still got a fine for parking in a commercial space.
She believes that, as a new mom and given that her child’s interests should rank above those of the city, she should have been given a pass. Just this once.
“Nursing should be urgent enough to exempt a fine,” she explains. “I think they should have been a little bit more sensitive. I feel like getting them a little more educated on that area will be a lot more helpful.”
However, as Rodriguez herself notes, the agent wrote her the ticket before he even knew what she was doing in the back of her car, so it’s not like he deliberately fined her while breastfeeding. Secondly, the NYPD says that parking agents don’t have the authority to null tickets they’d already issued, so the man really had no other choice but to leave it on the windshield.
Rodriguez plans to fight the ticket and hopes her judge will be a bit more understanding.
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