Agitating Advice.....Fun Failure #3

I think so far one of the hardest things that comes along with this motherhood business is all the advice that everyone has for you. Yep...harder than the sleepless nights, endless feedings, hormones, etc is complete strangers coming up to you and giving you their two cents on how they think you should raise your child.

Don't get me wrong, I am a newbie and gratefully accept most of advice....but mostly I appreciate advice from family, friends, people I know that have had children, etc. Complete strangers is a whole other story.

It's off putting when someone you have never met and most likely won't ever see again, comes up to you to give you some not so "constructive" criticism in the disguise of advice. So far I've been told that I shouldn't take my baby out in public before they are three months old, that having an infant in a grocery store is just an invitation for germs, that you can never have too many blankets covering a baby even when it's 80 degrees outside, and many others.

Most of the time, I just smile, say thanks and let it go.

For some reason, on St. Patrick's Day I had one of my first major meltdowns, ignited by the advice of strangers.

Our neighbors are good friends of our and were playing with their band at an outside patio on St. Patricks Day. We wanted to be supportive, so we told them if Sophie was in a good mood, we'd try to drop by while they were playing for a little bit to show our support. It was a warm day, I checked with my neighbor to make sure it wouldn't be too loud for Sophie and we brought mini earphones for her to wear in case it was louder than we thought.

So we joined the green-wearing crown (it wasn't even really that crowded) and went for a bit to show our support. We were there for about 20 minutes and Sophie was asleep the entire time. We had her away from any speakers and obviously the music wasn't bothering her since she remained asleep the whole time. That however did not stop people from coming up to me telling me that babies shouldn't be anywhere so loud. Add the never ending advice to the fact that I overheard a group of people talking about me bringing a baby out and "couldn't I afford a babysitter" and you have the basis for my meltdown.


I almost started to cry right there, informed Dan that we needed to leave right then, and rushed to the car before the tears started flowing.

I can usually let these things go but for some reason on this day, at this particular moment, it really bothered me. I had a good talk with Dan and my girlfriend about it and decided that I just have to be confident that I know how to raise my own baby.

So lesson learned: people are going to have their own opinions. Some of it is helpful, some of it isn't.  I just have to roll with it and not let it bother me.