Other People’s Kids…..

Yesterday while dropping off Baby Boy at daycare I experienced a feeling I never knew could be conjured in my soul… I found that I despised someone else’s child! (or so I temporarily thought)

  Beyond crossing paths with the children in public that leave even the most non-judgmental parent thinking “Thank goodness that isn’t my kid!” or “I would __________if that were my child” I have never looked at the innocent face of two people's 46 chromosome mixture and had anything rise in my mind stronger than the basic judgment all are guilty of. What left me with my stomach in knots, blood pressure rising and almost seeing red? THAT CHILD WAS CRUEL TO MY BABY! After the offense my son stood there and those happy eyes turned gray and filled with tears, his bottom lip popped out and he cried “Mommy, I wanna go wif you today!” For once in my life I was speechless and frozen in my path. Instead of leaving baby boy in good faith that he would have a day of prancing on the play ground, noshing on nutritious snacks and pure joy with all of his little friends I ran to my child scooped him up and held him close trying to provide comfort amongst my fear that baby boy’s social life had crumbled before my eyes (logical fear, right?). How could anyone ever be mean to my sweet child?!

  I will admit for the rest of the day I was filled with petty thoughts. Without using the basic logic of the ever changing toddler mood I blamed that child for all things ill in Baby Boy’s life. I even contemplated giving the child’s mother the cold shoulder as we both walked in to pick up our life’s work in the form of barely potty trained, booger eating little pre-schoolers. Gone would be my sweet smile, “Hi how are you?!” greeting and kind gesture of holding the door if I made it there first. After all her child’s actions that morning was totally her fault, right?

 Luckily after stewing for a few hours the logic of “Maybe he was in a bad mood, it was before 7 am after all” (in dealing with our diva daughter this logic should have sprung to mind immediately), “I’m sure Baby Boy doesn’t even remember” and “I bet they returned to being the best of friends less than 5 minutes later” hit me before I gave this child’s mother the evil eye in the pick-up area. I even ran the scenario of my sweet and innocent big blue eyed little boy doing the same exact thing to another child.

  This rational set my mind off on a whirl-wind… How understanding are we as parents of other people’s children? In our eyes our children are simply the best and could never be replaced by another. Yet through someone else’s eyes we could probably learn a thing or two about our bouncing balls of sweetness.

Do you ever wonder how others perceive your child?

Do you care?

Would it change how you handle, talk to or discipline your child?

 I will openly admit my children have faults just as we all do. They are loud. They are demanding. They are messy. They can be whiny (eh, they usually are whiny). They are mostly a big challenge to wrangle. Yet this is my herd to wrangle and I can’t be convinced they are anything less than what they should be. I have come across many parents that cannot be told their child is less than perfect (and they typically spend a good amount of time trying to convince others of said children’s perfection). When there are likely others that could ramble off a list of what makes that child not perfect. It’s not a difficult task because one of the biggest facts of life (other than death and taxes) is that NO ONE on this earth is perfect. This doesn’t make the child any less lovable, likeable and all around super… It makes them human.

So tell me- How do you handle other people’s children? What would you say to a parent if you witnessed their little darling do something less than desirable?

PS- This morning was WAAAAY better! The child that was mean to Baby Boy? Not there :)