MY kid won't act like that....

So we were out running some errands one day and stopped at a store to get some additional babyproofing items.  A couple of aisles over, a lady had a cart full of toys and screaming toddlers.  I felt sympathy for her.  I really did.  Which is why I was surprised when an employee turned to me and said, "If those were my kids, I would not be buying them any toys!  Children should not throw tantrums like that!"

Ok, do I condone and support bad behavior?  No.  Discipline is necessary.  However, anyone who has a toddler knows that sometimes they just go crazy for no reason at all or for completely random reasons.  Yesterday, at the doctor's office Declan had a serious meltdown because I would not let him eat his band-aid.  Seriously.

I just kind of half-smiled at this employee.  I asked her if she had any kids.  She smiled and said she had a newborn daughter and she will never act like that.  Been there, done that.  Oh well.  Live and learn, right?  I have to say, I'm much less judgmental about others people's children now that I'm a mother.

MY kid will always look cute and never have sticky hands.

MY kid will never scream in public.

MY kid will learn great sleeping habits and won't struggle with naptime.

MY kid will certainly be a child prodigy and learn piano, pythagorean theorem, and Mandarin Chinese... by age 2.

I have said all of those.  Ok, maybe not the last one.  Do my kids always look like they just walked out of a Gymboree ad?  No.  They have sticky hands at times.  Declan sometimes screams in public like it's his job.  The naptime issues are slowly resolving and becoming much easier, but it's taken us 6 months to get there.

But it's ok.  My kids are loved.  Random people who might judge my parenting while Declan is screaming at Target probably don't know our family's struggle.  They don't know we lost one of our beautiful sons.  They don't know the tragedy and heartache we've been through.  Maybe if they did, they would understand that Declan picks up on stuff and knows something isn't right.  And he acts out sometimes because of it.

I know I am far less likely to judge people now.  You just never know what someone is going through.