Friday, April 10, 2009

How to annoy me

Say any of the following to me, regarding boy:
  • "He's not sleeping through the night? Why not? Didn't you let him cry-it-out?"
  • "He sure is tiny. Are you sure you're feeding him enough?"
  • "You never give him [XYZ food that I fed my kids]? Why not?"
  • "He probably doesn't sleep well because you eat too much sugar/are still breastfeeding/he's too stubborn or naughty to go back to sleep on his own."
  • "It's cute that you still tiptoe around the house when he's sleeping. We always put a radio in our kid's room when he was a baby. That way he got USED to noise. You should have done that right away."
  • "He doesn't take a bottle? That's too bad. If you'd gotten him used to one, you could maybe go out at night once in a while and not be under house-arrest."

2 comments:

screamy mimi said...

AMEN! I have vowed to myself to never say ANYTHING to a young mother that could be AT ALL misconstrued. What do people expect us to think/feel when they tell us our child looks "small"? If we are to assume that these people are sharing their VAST wisdom and experience because they themselves have been parents, HOW did they miss out on realizing that saying things like that to a parent is incredibly annoying??

emlocke said...

I find the blank, vegetative stare is the most effective response to people who make those kinds of comments about my career. Plus, it's hilarious when, after blabbering on for ten minutes, they realize that I haven't blinked in at least five, and they drop the career talk and ask, "are you okay?"