The Judged

Sorry it's been so long again, but I can never seem to find time to sit down at a computer. I'm only able to right now because Ada is asleep and I have Brady in my lap watching yo gabba gabba on you tube.  I'm sure a lot of parents are shaking their heads at me right now, but that's exactly what I want to talk about...

When you become an adult, you get to make your own decisions without too much criticism. Then, you become a parent and somehow that opens you up to all sorts of criticism again.  You let your kid have junk and McDonald's occasionally and someone is going to bad mouth you.  You teach your kids to eat healthy and never let them eat junk and someone is going to bad mouth you for that too.  You babywear and people criticize that you're spoiling your baby and they will get too used to it.  You don't babywear and a whole different group is going to criticize you for not holding your baby enough.  Why can't we just acknowledge that there are many different ways to parent?

I have seen many complaints on Facebook about parents being on their phones and on Facebook too much, which is kind of ironic to me.  Last week, I took the kids to storytime and a mother came in with her 3 year old, sat her 3 year old down on the ground, grabbed herself a chair and whipped her iphone out.  Every other parent is sitting on the floor with their child(ren).  My first instinct was to be appalled, but it's not like her daughter was running around crazy (like my toddler).  She was sitting quietly.  Maybe this was the only moment that this mom had to sit down and relax for a second. I agree that it's not good to be on your phone all the time.  Unless you are with the person all the time, how do you know how often they are really on the phone?  How do I know what she was doing is any different than when I go and park the car for a second when both kids are contently strapped into their carseats?  Yes, I do that every so often.  Keep in mind, we don't leave the house during the week much anyway, so it's not every day. Unless I am physically putting my children in danger, then I really don't want to hear your opinion on my parenting.  This would be less of a big deal if someone actually nicely approached the "offending parent" and brought it up, but I only every see snide remarks behind someone's back or on Facebook. Ugh!  Vent over.