Sunday 21 August 2011

Mum's gone all Judgemental

Does anyone else  do this?
I can't help it, but whenever I'm out and about with the munchkin I start doing baby comparisons. I don't mean to, but it still happens.
Sometimes it's just me trying to work out how old the other children are, something I'm a bit rubbish at. I see a child sitting confidently in a high-chair, oh then they must be a bit older than Joseph.  Hum, but they look smaller and are just wearing a baby-gro and not a "day" outfit as I would call it. Now there's a little one screaming, aren't I lucky that Joseph's so well behaved in public, shhh Joseph you're showing me up!
That's usually how it goes. Joseph has no concept of anything like this yet, though I'm sure he will in the future. I still find myself looking at other Mums buggies to see who's got what and if anyone else has the same as me and I've seen a couple. It's hard not to try and exchange a knowing nod with the women who have the same buggy, they'd probably think me odd if I tried! It's hard not to be judgemental when it comes to buggies, every time I see an ICandy I think "More money than sense!" which might not be the case at all, someone might have bought it for them. Still, they're jolly expensive pieces of kit!
It's hard not to tut when you see someone in a restaurant feeding their little one chips. Still, without knowing what they eat at home it would be silly to judge, this might be a once-a-month treat and doesn't mean that they eat nothing but deep fried garbage. After all, I did once spend a happy afternoon with my niece in a garden centre, we looked at plants, coo-ed at bunnies, marveled at some very big fish and ate a LOT of chocolate cake.
It does make me wonder what other mums think of me when I'm out and about. Do they tut if I let Joseph use his dummy? Well, it's that or you can all hear him yell. Do they tut when I feed him his bottle while he is sat in his buggy? Well, I would have got him out but there wasn't a lot of room and he's a bit of a magpie, my cutlery and who knows what else would have been grabbed at and probably thrown on the floor. At home I always cuddle him while giving him his bottle, it's just not always practical when out and about. Anyway, he's nearly nine months now and he's old enough to start feeling what it's like to feed himself. He can just about hold the bottle now, but can't hold it at the right angle to actually drink from it yet!
And then you get into the whole "competitive mum" thing, my child did this young, my child did that, my child has NEVER done that in public, my child knows this.... blah blah blah!

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