Today is a new day

 

Kindness. Compassion. Understanding. Yesterday was hard… what was a beautiful day turned a bit sour when a stranger decided to tell me how terrible a mother I am and that I should leave my children at home… I was shocked. My children weren’t running around Chapters like terrors and even if they were… compassion is always my first response and I naively seem to expect the same from others. For the most part I am happy to say that I am right and people are understanding of the ways of toddlers but, having children has definitely shown me how intolerant many people can be. This woman decided to tell me that because my child was screaming (he was excited and frustrated and being a 19 month old is a confusing time of life) that I am a bad mom. According to her,  “I’m not doing my children any favours by allowing them to scream…” She didn’t see that I was quietly whispering to him that we don’t scream. She didn’t see the store manager get out all of the paw patrol toys that got them sooo worked up and excited. She didn’t see me trying to exit the store exasperated and with as little fuss as possible. She chose not to see he and his brother embracing and holding hands or the excitement on his face at the helicopter toy and his rationale that by me paying for it means it was being taken from him. She chose to see “a bratty child and a bad mom.” Well, if loving, excited, expressive, fun loving, full of life, friendly, outgoing, fearless, smart, brave, strong willed children make me a bad parent im not sure what a good parent looks like. In any case, I realize this woman is just probably miserable. I am posting this because I know A LOT of moms who have wild toddlers, toddlers who look older than their age, toddlers who want to experience everything fun, toddlers who are having bad days but then moms can’t simply “keep them at home” as this woman suggested. I ask strangers even if you don’t enjoy children’s company, even if in your head you are cursing the screaming child at Chapters… please just smile, show some compassion because I assure you, the mom is doing her very best and like me is probably just trying to leave the store in a hurry. Today was a new day. 💕

A post shared by Shannon (@thoughtsinamoment) on Sep 17, 2017 at 6:36pm PDT