Bad mom business- June 15, 2011
Charlotte and I went to the mall Friday night because I’m the kind of rock star who checks out sales at Gymboree on Friday nights. Charlotte was happily gnawing on her Sophie in the stroller while I may or may not have paid full price for the world’s cutest ladybug bathing suit at Baby Gap.
I was sipping a latte as we strolled through one boutique. I collected a pile of sundresses to try on. I was on a mission to find some for this summer that could contain the massive, milk-filled mamacitas that are my breasts these days.
That’s when I heard someone say, “Wow, someone is up late!” I turned to see a young clerk looking down at my baby. I looked at my phone. It was only 8:45pm.
But…BOOM! Instantly I felt like a terrible mother.
| Image from www.housewifemom.com |
I knew Charlotte had taken a long nap that afternoon and that she probably wouldn’t go down for awhile. I knew that I rarely get to spend evenings with my daughter because of my work schedule. I knew that finding the time to go shopping is hard as a new mother.
This girl knew none of this. I wondered if she was just a pissy mall employee, anxious for closing time. Maybe she meant nothing by her comment and I was being too sensitive, but I still thought it was unnecssary. I have often seen parents out with their children at very late hours and wondered why their kid wasn’t in bed, but I never vocalized that to the parent. Why? Because it’s none of my business.
I left the pile of dresses for her to put back on the rack and quickly wheeled my baby out of the store. She lost my business because she got in my business.
Spread it around:
Aww don't worry about it too much! Charlotte was happy and you were taking advantage of time to spend with her–sounds like an A+ momma right there
Also, that lady bug bathing suit is ridiculously cute!
I've seen that ladybug suit – soooooooo adorable! Mommy says not to let that silly girl make you feel bad.
How rude of her to make such a comment. It's so easy, I think, to look in on others' parenting and to make assumptions, but they are just that assumptions. When others try to judge my parenting abilities, I remind myself that I know my child best and that no one can make me feel guilty about what I know as her mom. It's tough.
I WISH John would be up at 8:45 because that means that he MIGHT sleep past 1:30am. Also, 8:45 seems like a reasonable summer bedtime to me. I'm lucky if Will will go down before then (even though his bedtime used to be 8:30) because the sun's still up. Tell her to shove it. As an aside, we all have opinions about child-raising until we are in the middle of actually raising children. I was changing Will's diaper in Belk's today and some older woman raised her eyebrows at me like, "He should be potty-trained by now." He just turned two in March, but he's a tall kid and he's a precocious talker, so people probably think he's three. At any rate, nothing has humbled me more about my opinions on parenting like actually HAVING a child. Don't worry about it. Get you some dresses, girl.
tell her to suck it and go watch Teen Mom. We used to take Travis all kinds of places at night until he was well into toddlerhood and needed to stay in a 'routine'. If Charlotte was sleepy she'd have been asleep in the stroller.
And WTH is wrong with blogger. I still can't comment using my ID.
How totally obnoxious. She was just jealous of Charlotte's sophie and swimsuit.
Love that swim suit!! and trust me – take the time you get for yourself and use it! she is obviously not a mom and clueless to how we arrange, rearrange and then reschedule our lives around our little ones.