Mom Shaming

There really is no other sin greater than mommy shaming among other mommies. Being a mom is hard enough without having to deal with judgement from others. As mothers we worry, we struggle to make the right choices, and we do the best that we can while life is hurling things at us from all directions.

I was on the receiving end of some mom shaming yesterday, and it made me feel bad for the whole day. I try really hard to be kind and considerate of people's feelings, so when someone is thoughtless towards me, it hurts double.

There are obviously two sides to every story, so there is the chance that this other mommy was genuinely concerned (as my husband, Pollyanna Sunshine pointed out), but perhaps her good intentions lacked graceful execution.

As I have mentioned several times now, my Small Human doesn't enjoy the texture of solid food. He usually has no problems with small bites of my meal. We had enchiladas the other night and he ate some beans, rice, chicken and a bit of tortilla and was fine. He's also usually ok with cheese, but during snack time in class on Monday, the cheese made him gag and he puked on himself a little.

While I tried to clean him off, my poor baby cried from the discomfort of the acid in his throat no doubt, I was bombarded with questions like, "Does he always throw up when he eats solids?" "He can't eat any solid food?" "Have you spoken to your pediatrician? What did they have to say about this?" These all seem like harmless questions, but I think that for me, the malice was in the delivery. I felt attacked, and like I was being told that my son was a freak.

Clearly, nothing is wrong with Small Human. He's been walking since he was 9 1/2 months old, is in the 75th percentile for weight, 90th percentile for height, has fat, healthy cheeks, and loves exploring the world and getting into trouble.

I think that many parents focus too much on the short term and need to remember that all of us were babies at one point, yet we're all pretty much on even footing now. My husband had trouble with solids when he was a baby too, and last I checked he just ate two plates of my spaghetti at dinner, as I'm sure Noah will when he's good and ready.

The moral of my story is: Don't be a jerk to other moms, you could ruin someone's day. The end.

What Noah does when I raise my arms in the air and say, "Winner!"