By far, one of the most annoying bits of parenthood has got to be the unsolicited advice from strangers on how you are mistreating your child.
Today it was a bit chilly out - what with being mid-November and all. Hedgehog and I had to go to the store to pick up rations, but beyond that were going to be holed up at home all day. I decided it wasn't worth the effort to have the sock battle today (Hedgehog will pull off socks the instant they are put on his feet, so if you want him to wear socks he must also wear shoes as well, which can add complexity to the diaper-changing process depending on the outfit), and if I wasn't going to make him wear socks it seemed almost silly to put him into a sweater or jacket for the 2 minutes he would spend outside between home/car/store. So I threw caution to the wind, and took him out in just a t-shirt and pants.
It's not like I'm going to freeze my son to death. It was 50 degrees out. He has a wool blanket that I put over him in the car. The grocery store and the house are both climate controlled. I even took the time to go through the checklist in my head and know that there were warmer clothes (and a wool hat) in the diaper bag should some unforeseen circumstance arise that necessitated us being outside for longer than a minute at a time.
Yet I still get the woman outside the grocery store chastising me for not putting the kiddo into a sweater. Thankfully, she was exiting the store as I was entering, so it was quite easy to bite my tongue and just walk away.
I need to think up some sort of snide comment for when it happens again.
Amen!!! I used to get called out all the time about not bundling the Munchkin up enough when I was carrying him in the sling. I finally had to point out to someone that he had a 98-degree furnace in there with him at all times.
Posted by: Alison | 18 November 2009 at 08:02 PM