Keep It To Yourself

One of the things I loathe most in the whole entire world is unsolicited advice.  I'm all for listening to your words of wisdom if I have asked you for your opinion, but otherwise....keep it to yo self.  This bothers me even more when I see it directed towards someone else, and it seems to be the worst with people giving advice on having children and parenting.

First off, why is it that when a couple is together for awhile everyone around them is pushing for the next step (ie; "when are you getting engaged, when are you getting married, when are you going to have a baby, when are you going to have the next one, don't you want to try for a girl/boy.....").  These are very personal decisions for people and are really not the business of anyone but those involved.  If two people want to date forever and never get married, let them, or maybe they're more the "get married after 3 weeks of dating" type(in my case I was the wait until your knocked up, then get married type)
.  My point is, who cares, if it's not affecting you, why is it your business?

The having children thing probably bothers me the most.  In my not so humble opinion I have the cutest 2 year old on the planet, but I'm very serious when I say that right now, I don't plan on having any more.  People regularly make comments that she shouldn't be an only child, or don't I want to try for a boy, or she should really have siblings to play with .......(trust me this list goes on and ON).  While this may be a choice for us, what if it wasn't?  What if I was unable to have more children, do you really think that's something I want to discuss with some random lady in line at Target???  Will I change my mind on this in a few more years? Maybe.  But for now, I don't want anymore and I'm very happy with my little family.   

The next big one is "unsolicited" parenting advice.  Yes random stranger, I'm sure you raised 7894 wonderful kids, but just because you never let your kids play with your cell phone to get them through the mall without pulling your hair out does not mean you know better.   It simply means that you didn't have smart phones back then and you didn't have the option.  It's not my fault technology has improved....now leave me alone. Really though, whether I decide to use the cry-it-out method, or whether I want to breast feed and how long is my decision.  Unless I ask for your opinion, I probably don't want it.  And for that matter, every Mom and every child is different so why don't mom's support each other instead of playing the one-up game all the time.  If that's the case, I bribed my child with a bag of cheetos to get through the grocery store yesterday and then let her have a popsicle while said groceries were being unloaded....top that Mom of the Year :P


For the record, I do regularly ask my friends and family for advice and I do often take advice that works for us, but if I don't ask, please don't give me your two-cents.

XOXO
Brittany