I read an article last night that was very eye opening for me, & I'm sure will be for other people as well. I am going to copy & paste the article below, It was SO good. See that photo up there? That's my sweet little London, who has her moments at times when its definitely not convenient. Us moms get judged so much when out in the real world with kids. When your child is polite, & kind, you get told what a great job you are doing & how sweet your child is. But when your having an off day, not because of you, but because of your childs emotions, you get the opposite. You get people staring at you, watching you with an annoyed look on their face, & its pretty clear what they are thinking. Not the best feeling. But its not our fault, nor is it a reflection of our parenting, so important to remember.
This article came at the perfect moment for me, puts everything back in perspective.
Lets be honest, Its hard to not let all the judging glares of total strangers get to you, bring you down, & make you feel itty bitty. But lets remember to put things in perspective when we get these "glares"....These people are strangers, they know nothing about your parenting, or about you.
You child is the one that matters, not them.
Ok, time to read the article, its one of the best I've read. I highlighted my favorite parts, even though the whole thing was spot on.
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" Young kids don't always pick the best times to have emotional meltdowns.
Just ask any parent.
Grocery stores, malls, and restaurants (or any place with lots of people around) in particular seem to bring out the worst in our little ones, prompting explosive tantrums that can make even the most stoic parent turn red-faced with embarrassment.
But why be embarrassed? It's just kids being kids, after all.
Actor Justin Baldoni recently shared a poignant photo with his own daughter and the big lesson he learned from his dad about such moments.
Baldoni, shared a photo his wife, Emily, took while the family was shopping at the local Whole Foods.
In it, Baldoni, along with his father, stares down at his daughter, Maiya. She's crying and/or wailing on the floor. Who knows about what. Her body is twisted into classic tantrum pose.
The two men look calm. Almost amused, but not in a mocking way.
They certainly are not embarrassed despite a horde of people around them in the store.
"My dad always let me feel what I needed to feel, even if it was in public and embarrassing," he wrote.
The post continued:
"I don't remember him ever saying 'You're embarrassing me!' or 'Dont cry!' It wasn't until recently that I realized how paramount that was for my own emotional development.
Our children are learning and processing so much information and they don't know what to do with all of these new feelings that come up. I try to remember to make sure my daughter knows it's OK that she feels deeply. It's not embarrassing to me when she throw tantrums in the grocery store, or screams on a plane.
→I'm her dad (mom)…not yours. ←
Let's not be embarrassed for our children. It doesn't reflect on you. In fact.. we should probably be a little more kind and patient with ourselves too. If we got out everything we were feeling and allowed ourselves to throw tantrums and cry when we felt the need to then maybe we'd could also let ourselves feel more joy and happiness. And that is something this world could definitely use a little more of."
The photo, which Baldoni calls one of his favorites ever, shows the advice in action.
There's a lot of pressure out there on both men and women to be the perfect parents at all times.
But being the perfect parent doesn't mean your kid never gets angry or frustrated or confused. As Baldoni writes, toddlers are really just beginning to learn and explore the world's boundaries. There's naturally going to be a lot of swirling emotions as they encounter things and situations they can't understand.
What's important is we don't teach them to hide those feelings or push them down for fear of ridicule — that kind of emotion-management can come back to haunt us as adults. Working through our feelings, or just having a good cry right there in the middle of the grocery store, is an important skill to learn.
→→→The emotional health of our children is certainly worth a few weird stares from people we'll never seen again.←←←
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(yes!)
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