I can relate to the Arj Barker mum because I'm also super entitled with my 'baby'

"I feel compelled to defend her, because I understand exactly what she's thinking."

Image: Nama Winston

The poor mum at the centre of the Arj Barker debacle - which by now has made international headlines - has copped a lashing in Australia.

Trish Faranda has been interrogated in TV interviews, and savaged online, for her decision to take her seven-month-old baby to watch the +15 Arj Barker comedy show on Saturday night.

After she was kicked out by Barker for the baby making distracting noises, she's spoken about how isolating motherhood can be, which is why she booked her tickets, and explained that she couldn't leave the baby at home because the bub is exclusively breastfed.

By now the interwebs is saturated with opinion pieces, radio segments, and social media commentary on the morals and ethics of Barker's ejection, and Faranda's apparently high level of entitlement.

But that's not what my Op Ed is about. I can relate so hard to Faranda, because I behave exactly the same way with my baby.

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"It's an unhealthy, messed up, relationship"

Ok, full disclosure: my baby's name is Churchill and he's a three-year-old Moodle. 

I inherited him when a breeder called me a few years ago after my sister died and offered me the pup she was meant to have. I'll be the first to admit I have an unhealthy, thoroughly messed up relationship with that dog/the love of my life, and I don't want to hear about it from anyone.

Just call me Lisa Vanderpump from Real Housewives, and you've nailed it.

So yes, I don't actually have a human baby. But I treat Churchill the same as Faranda does her daughter in these ways:

I take him places where he's not allowed - around the Sydney Opera House, into shopping malls, into Coles. I never check with anyone, I never ask permission. I just barge straight in.

I act offended and outraged when I'm confronted by people just trying to do their jobs if they call me out, and am incredulous that they have the audacity to tell me to leave with my baby.

Do I love Churchill more than my son? Soz but yes. Image: Nama Winston

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"I get it, Trish"

Of course I'm not equating a breastfeeding-dependent baby's needs to that of Faranda's daughter. I'm just saying that I can relate to her overwhelming feeling that her first responsibility is to her vulnerable one... and to hell with everyone else.

Do I care if Churchill smells (he is non-allergenic so he doesn't and how dare you think that), barks, pees, salivates? Do I care that in public others might not appreciate his exceptional level of adorableness as I do? 

Yeah, nah. I'm blind to his faults, and his impact on the occasion or venue he's attending. Get me a tv interview on The Project, and as I defend myself, Churchill will yap and perhaps even crouch down for a poo, but arguing the neutral impact his presence has will be a hill I die on. (Poor Faranda's baby got so fussy in her Project interview, she had to be breastfed immediately - on camera.)

But I get it, Trish. You're not alone. When something is your entire world, and you dedicate every part of your being to advocating for and protecting them, it's easy to not care less about anyone else.

Entitlement comes naturally.

Originally published as I can relate to the Arj Barker mum because I'm also super entitled with my 'baby'