this started in a corner.
I'm a mom of three. I breastfed all of them, exclusively, for as long as they needed.
which means I've spent more outdoor events than I can count tucked into the only shady corner I could find, hunched over a baby with my back screaming, while strangers walked past. or hiding in a porta-potty, perched on a toilet seat that nobody should be perched on, trying to make a baby latch in a space that smelled like a porta-potty.
and every single time, I thought the same thing: why isn't this already a thing?
festivals have water stations, charging stations, info booths, first-aid tents, beer gardens, VIP lounges. they have whole zones dedicated to dogs. but somehow nowhere — actually nowhere — for the person trying to feed a baby in public.
then I started listening more closely, and I realized I was the easy case.
I'm a white Canadian woman with the legal right to feed anywhere, and I still hid. for my Muslim friends, my Orthodox Jewish neighbours, my South Asian cousins — and many other caregivers whose faith or culture asks them to feed with privacy and modesty — there often isn't a "just feed in public" option at all. peer-reviewed research and primary religious sources both confirm privacy is a real and recurring barrier to feeding outside the home — one that can shorten how long mothers breastfeed at all.
a folding chair behind a tree isn't equity. a porta-potty isn't equity. equity is a clean, private, beautiful space where every caregiver — regardless of how their faith, culture, or comfort tells them to feed — can do it with dignity.
so I made one.
tendtent is the space I needed at every event I went to for nine straight years. it's also the space my neighbours needed long before I clued in. soft, private, clean, warmly staffed. you can feed. you can change. you can sit down. you can breathe.
and then you can go back out and actually enjoy the day.
— Ivi