Judgement

Why is it that as soon as you get pregnant, it seems to open up the doors for other women (and sometimes men) to "judge" you on your decisions?  I was talking with my friend the other day who is pregnant with her first child.  She had recently experienced some "judgement" from her friends/co-workers regarding some choices she is thinking of making for her baby.

In my opinion, there is not "one" way to raise a child.  There are many options out there, cloth diapers vs non-cloth diapers, breast-feeding vs bottle feeding, co-sleeping vs crib sleeping, homemade baby food vs store bought baby food....the list goes on and on.

Drew was not potty trained until after his 3rd birthday.  This was something that apparently bothered ALOT of people in our "circle" of people in our life.  In my defence, Drew was not ready.  I tried the summer before he was 2, and he would have nothing to do with it, I didn't want to make it a negative experience, so I gave it up....he wasn't "ready" until the following summer, but Hunter was due in July, and I didn't want to overwhelm him, so I waited.  When we finally put him in underpants, it took 3 days and he was trained.  The fact that it went so smoothly tells me that he was ready.  The fact that I got some much flack from people who saw him once in a blue moon still drives me nuts. I'm not sure why people took it so personally, or why I was made out to be such a bad mom because he wasn't trained.  They weren't changing his diapers, not sure why it bothered them so much. 

Don't get me started on the soother issue.....

It's my belief that parenting is tough, really tough.  It's a lot tougher than I thought it ever would be......people who don't have children should not pass judgement because they have NO CLUE what it's like.  People who have children should know better.  No one is the perfect parent, but if we all stick together, maybe we can make it a little easier......or at least band together and tell all the "judgers" to "F"- off!!!!!