These are comments by Bob, Deanne, and Amy on the post “She asked, ‘How can you do this to this poor child?’ and pleaded frantically with me to get in her car.”
Bob said:
“The reason it was so infuriating was that it came not five minutes after the cashier gushed over me for simply having my baby strapped to my chest while shopping. Both reactions were equally idiotic in my book. And there were many others. Simply feeding my baby in public elicited squeals of joy. But if he spit up, I would often be barraged with advice, as if spitting up wasn’t a thing that babies do!
“And since no one is mentioning the elephant in the room either on this thread or the original post, I will. Men never made these comments to me.”
Deanne said:
“I think you will find that this does actually happen to Mums, too. When my babies were little I was told off on a hot day for not having socks on them. Told off for letting the 6 month old use a dummy (pacifier) as his teeth would be crooked, told off letting them climb or splash in fountains as toddlers etc etc. The only thing mums don’t get is the accolades for just being a mum. That’s something reserved for Dads alone. I.E.: ‘You’re such a good Dad taking your child to the park!’”
Amy said:
“My favorite is the ‘Oh, you’re babysitting?’ Hell, no. Mom doesn’t ‘babysit’ neither does Dad. But I agree, Dad gets props just for being there. I had a man once tell me I was ‘lucky’ that my guy was still in the picture. No I’m not. I picked a good man and we got married and we’re staying that way. We’re not ‘lucky’ for that series of events, we work darn hard at it.”
Photo credit: Flickr / Drew And Melissa
