‘They ruined my family’s first Father’s Day’: Texas mother says she was asked to leave for breastfeeding, and the owner disputes why

A Texas mother says she and her husband were asked to leave a restaurant while she was breastfeeding their 5-month-old son, an incident she says happened on her husband’s first Father’s Day. Aura McCullough, a first-time mother from Allen who posts on TikTok under the username @carnivoreaura, shared her account of the experience in a video that she said she posted because the incident left her feeling “humiliated and demoralized.”

McCullough said the family, along with another couple and their infant, had driven to Nowhere Bar in Celina, Texas, for a Father’s Day lunch when a staff member, not their waiter, approached their table and told her she could not breastfeed “like that” and needed to cover up. McCullough said she refused, adding that even if she had wanted to comply, she does not carry nursing covers.

The family asked whether another customer had complained, and the staff member told them, according to McCullough, that the manager had been watching the security cameras and flagged the situation. When McCullough asked to speak with the manager, she said the same staff member identified themselves as the manager.

Texas law gives mothers the right to breastfeed anywhere they are legally allowed to be

At that point, McCullough said she asked for her check and requested her burger order be canceled. The staff member left and returned shortly after, telling the family that the owner had called and agreed to cover their tab, but that they should leave. “The owner’s gonna front the tab, but y’all can go,” McCullough recalled being told.

After the family left, McCullough posted about the experience on TikTok, where the video went viral. “I felt embarrassed, and I felt kind of upset,” she said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “This isn’t a sexual act. This isn’t some sort of perverted act. I need to feed my son.” She described the incident as something that “ruined my family’s first Father’s Day” and said it “shamed a mother for trying to feed her baby.”

Following her post, the owner of Nowhere Bar, identified only as Katie, in a public video statement on Facebook, disputed McCullough’s account. “To be direct, Nowhere Bar does not prohibit breastfeeding,” Katie said. “We have never asked anybody to stop breastfeeding. We have never asked anybody to leave because they were breastfeeding, and that has not and will not ever be our policy.”

Katie said neither she nor the other owners were present during the incident or watching the cameras. She said the situation was reported to them afterward and stemmed from a “young employee” who felt uncomfortable and sought help from a manager. Katie said a miscommunication then occurred and “escalated beyond what anyone intended.”

The video ended with an apology to McCullough and her family, with an invitation for breastfeeding mothers to visit the restaurant. A similar dispute involved a Texas Roadhouse manager who kicked a family out after they mentioned being at the pool.

McCullough said she was not satisfied with the response. In a comment on TikTok, she said the bar’s statement “was s–t” and questioned why the owners had yet to contact her family directly if they were genuinely sorry. She also raised a separate point, asking whether the same “young employee” who was reportedly made uncomfortable by her breastfeeding had also been uncomfortable with a shirtless “Dad Bod Contest” that Nowhere Bar had previously hosted at the establishment.

McCullough said she tried to reach out to the establishment after the incident but was ignored and blocked. She is requesting a direct, personal apology rather than one delivered through a video online, and is also asking for video footage of the incident to confirm what took place. She said she plans to take legal action and file a complaint against Nowhere Bar if neither is provided.

Under Texas law, mothers are legally permitted to breastfeed or express breast milk for their baby anywhere they are otherwise allowed to be. This is stated in Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 165, as outlined by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Exposing a breast while nursing is not considered indecent exposure or disorderly conduct, and mothers are not required to cover up. In another case, a Texas woman drove 30 minutes to celebrate her husband’s first Father’s Day only to be kicked out by a manager.

In 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 541 into law, extending those same protections to mothers who use a breast pump, according to the Texas Tribune. The bill passed the state House with a near-unanimous vote of 142 – 1 and cleared the Senate unanimously.

State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, who authored the bill, said it was meant to support “all maternal realities.” “It’s a simple thing that we did in this piece of legislation, but I think it’s also really symbolic,” she said. “It shows that we’re passing laws that are really encouraging and supporting mothers who do choose to breastfeed or use breast milk.”

Lactation consultant Kristine Keller added that the law was expected to give mothers more flexibility, particularly those returning to work. “The number of moms that go back to work and/or use a pump within their breastfeeding relationship is a lot higher than actually documented,” she said, “and that support needs to be there for them.”

McCullough said the response to her videos, while largely supportive, has also exposed how divided people remain on the issue of public breastfeeding. “While I’ve had an insane amount of support, the amount of people that put shame on mothers for breastfeeding has been so heartbreaking and so disappointing,” she said, according to the Dallas Morning News. “I realize how important this is.”