Bear with me while I vent a bit…

I read a lot of blogs in my free time and 98% of them are “mom blogs”. It’s so interesting to read about how each mom approaches each stage of motherhood, how they handle different situations, and I love gathering tips and tricks from them. They’re always so political about how they talk about their approaches, mindful of the fact that each mom is different so, of course, they’re going to handle things differently. I appreciate that. I’ve never been bothered by the fact that we (the collective “we” of moms everywhere) will choose to do things differently. I actually think that’s inevitable – every parent is different, every baby is different, and to go even further… every situation is different. Some things may work today that won’t work tomorrow. There’s no harm in trying different approaches.

Anyway, those same blogs sometimes talk about being judged for their approach and I never experienced it myself until a few days ago. I joined a mom’s group when Claire was first born and loved sharing with and hearing stories from them. They were always so supportive. It was a beautiful community of moms sharing in this adventure of motherhood and admitting to the fact that we’re all human. We’re not perfect. We’re all learning. It’s OK to not know the answer. But a few days ago, I talked to a new mom (who wasn’t part of the group) that was not that way. With every comment that I made about how I approached things, she judged. She made snide comments about how that wasn’t how she handled it. Her baby never did that. She never had that problem. It made me sick to my stomach. How can another woman be so condescending? I’m pretty sure her baby isn’t perfect, nor is anyone’s.

I came home and vented to CJ about it and he lovingly told me that I should just ignore people like that. I’m going to try to ignore those comments going forward because I can’t prevent people from saying that stuff to me. But I’d much rather just ask that all moms support each other. Don’t judge each other for handling things differently. Admit you’re not perfect. There’s nothing wrong with being human. I know I’m willing to support other mamas out there and not judge them.

Okay, that’s it. I’ll get off my pedestal now. 🙂