Other Parents

I wish this was a good experience post...but sadly it's not.

Parents all parent differently. Some may or may not agree with other parents and the way they handle their children. If you disagree, simply keep your comments to yourself. You don't know what the other parent is going through to know if your comments would actually be helpful or not.

So why i'm bringing this up is because of something that happened to me today. I wish it didn't bother me so much but this lady just made me want to rip her head out and the events won't just be forgotten, just how i am.

The lead up of the story is that while shopping, my daughter told me and my mom she had to go potty, so i go take her to the bathroom. My daughter doesn't like public bathrooms, never has, so it was a fight to get her in there. I tried to get her to go and she wouldn't. After fighting a bit, i said fine, lets just go. Then half way back to my mom, my daughter tells me she still has to go and starts running off to the bathroom. I'm already frustrated by the first attempt and the fact that my daughter is just running off. We get into the bathroom and i'm fighting with her again to get into the stall to try. This time, i at least got her on the toilet. She doesn't like the sound of the toilets, but wasn't like i could ask everyone to not flush just because my daughter needs to pee. The world doesn't revolve around my daughter. So she's yelling, i'm needing to talk loud to try and get her to hear me over her yelling, i'm just getting more frustrated at the fact that she isn't listening.

So there's the lead up, here's the part that has me so pissed about the events. There's other people in the bathroom, no surprise, it's a public bathroom. This lady, i'm assuming another mother because it's a sale for kids stuff, had the nerve to try and butt in. Like i can see her point, she's just trying to help but she really had no place to do so. At first all she said was that sometimes when kids are upset that they sometimes won't go.....no shit, i must be the only person in the world who doesn't know that. I at first tried to ignore her but she tried again. Like what am i suppose to do? My daughter said she had to pee but i should just chance her pissing herself because some lady thinks she's an all mighty know it all? Sure, she doesn't know it was my second try, or at least don't think she knew since i don't know who it was or who was in the bathroom the first time. Anyways, she didn't know what was going on, so she had no right to try and "correct" my parenting. It was also hot in the stall, heat and frustration never goes well together. I can't really remember what i ended up saying to her but i did snap at her to try and get her to stop talking to me. I did end up giving my daughter a light smack on the butt to get her to listen, oh my god, arrest me now i'm a horrible parent because i'm not some free spirit parent. After that, the lady was like "i heard you hit her" or something like that and i snapped back that i have my parenting, they have theirs and they need to keep theirs out of mine.

They ended up leaving me alone after that and i managed to keep my daughter on the toilet until my mom could come and help me. My mom was able to be more calm with my daughter because she didn't have to deal with the previous frustrations i was dealing with. Sure i could of handled it different, sure the lady was probably just trying to help, sure a lot of things could of been different.... But they weren't.

I think the only time that someone should step in someone else's parenting is when the child is clearing being abused. Other than that, you can have your opinions and ways you would do things, but back off the other parents. No one will never not judge other people on anything, but just keep comments to yourself. What if she was doing something i didn't agree on, or that i thought i knew better about, would she of liked me coming into her parenting and telling her what to do and clearly have a judging tone? I bet she wouldn't. I'm not even going to say sorry that my kid isn't a perfect angel and super well behaved/trained. I'm doing my best with my kid and sometimes me and my kid has clashing personalities...that is NORMAL.

All that lady really managed to do for me was turn my good day into a slightly worse day because i can't get the event out of my head with the different ways it could of gone and the ways i wish i could of handled it without getting in trouble. Hoping that writing this will help get it off my mind for a bit. not sure if i completely covered what i wanted to talk about because being home now and calmer, i don't remember every detail of what happened and with my daughter needing me to come away from the computer, it breaks my concentration to what i was writing.

long story short...Unless there is a real reason to step in, something like police or child protection needs to be called in, keep your parenting to yourself unless someone asks for help. Keep comments to yourself too. I'd rather be bad mouthed behind my back than to my face. People will judge, i just don't want to hear what negative things people have to say about me.