Tuesday, January 2, 2007

This is Mama's House...

If you have - or have had - a toddler, then you know that toddlers are almost always at their worst when you need them to be their best. Baby On Bored shared a story today about flying with a screaming toddler. I so can relate. I think every mother of a two year old can feel her pain - nobody wants to be "those people" on a plane, in a restaurant, at the grocery store...

In my life Before Child (B.C.) I hated those people. I saw bad parents, lack of discipline, lazy parenting, you name it...they were failing miserably, and impacting my ability to fly/eat/shop in peace. Rude, horrible people.

Now, After Delivery (A.D.), I feel their pain. I want to cry with them, hug them and reassure them that I know their child is a mutant evil monster, and I don't blame them. I know exactly how they feel, how aware they are of every eye on them, and every whisper...I know what it feels like to have an entire drugstore line look at you and assess your parenting ability based on one tantrum over an Elmo lunchbox.

Now, I want to beat up everyone in the place who's giving that Mom a dirty look. That Mom is one of Us. And it's not her fault that her child refused to take his nap today, got all sugared up because some idiot relative thought he should have candy corn, and then proceeded to run laps around Kroger. That Mom is as much a victim as you are, perhaps more, because she has to take him home with her. So you best step off - she's with Us, and we're not taking any more of that crap.

Moms, unite. We're taking back the airport. And the grocery store. And the drug store. And Starbucks. And all the places we hide from now that we have children. If you want peace and quiet, go to the library. But not during storytime, because that's ours too.

1 comments:

BabyonBored said...

I just found this post. Amen, sister! I will no longer feel badly and I will look to other moms for support and I BETTER find it there. It's our code, dammit!