Opinion, Parenting

“Advice” from the Perfect Parent Brigade

Watching a Perfect Parent Brigade hit the comments section never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes, articles that appear in my Facebook news feed might not even be relevant to me, but I have to have a read because I know, I just KNOW, that the comment sections will be a train wreck, no matter how innocuous the subject might be.

Last week, I saw an article about a new invention. It’s called the Swipe and Feed– a plastic gadget that snaps on to a baby bottle and holds your smartphone. Essentially, you can feed your baby and scroll with ease. Probably not so useful for the breast feeders- unless you’re willing and able to squish your boob into a plastic circle, but, I digress.

The dad that designed it said he made it to help him get a little work done during feeding times. I read the article about it and thought “Huh, that’s clever!” A friend of mine, who bottle fed both her kids, was lamenting the fact that these weren’t around when her kids were little. And then I read the comments.  Apparently, the Perfect Parents saw this little invention in a completely different light. They’d know, being Perfect Parents, how awful it really is. Some of them said they didn’t actually have any children and those are the ones I trust the most, because I know that’s when I was a Perfect Parent, myself.

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Life, Opinion, Parenting

Take Your Kids Out For A Meal

There’s an attitude that I’ve come across a few times over my almost 14 years as a parent. It’s usually conveyed with a rolled eye, an exaggerated sigh and pointed remarks obviously intended to be overheard. You see, some people cannot stand the thought of other people’s children in public places. They just don’t have much time for kids and have zero tolerance for kids doing kid things anywhere near them.

I know some kids are a handful. Some are loud and excitable and yes, some misbehave. Is this really going to be the majority of children, though? Is every kid going to be disruptive for the entire time they are out? I don’t think so. If a child does decide to throw an absolute wobbler at the table next to yours in a cafe, is your eye-rolling, sighing and judgy commentary helpful? Or are you just exacerbating an already painful situation for the parent that is red-faced and trying to calm things down?

judging

A little empathy and tolerance goes quite a long way. I’m also going to go out on a limb here and say that most parents don’t ignore their kids when they behave appallingly in public. They aren’t sipping lattes and scrolling through Facebook, oblivious to their kids staging their own screaming version of  Wrestlemania on the cafe floor, bumping into other diners and tripping up the waitstaff. There likely are a few that let kids run rampant and that’s not okay- but it’s also pretty uncommon. If you do see someone apparently ignoring terrible and disruptive behaviour, it’s an idea to have a quiet word with staff who might (hopefully) have a diplomatic way to address the issue.

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Feminism, News, Parenting

Teens, Photos & What They Need to Know

The news broke last week about the discovery of a website where teenage boys had been sharing photos of female teens naked, partially naked or engaged in sexual activity. 70+ schools were identified by journalist Nina Funnell, who painstakingly went through the website, cross -referencing names and schools listed. Not only did she uncover existing images and identifying information but she found “hit lists” where users were posting the names of girls they wanted to obtain photos of, encouraging others to “hunt” for them and offering trades. Some pictures were stolen, some coerced, some taken without permission. The website has reportedly been taken down but it isn’t the only one of its kind, nor is it likely to stay gone.

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Laughs, Parenting

20 Times We Were Bad Parents This Week

I’m sure we aren’t alone in being seen as bad parents from time to time. But do you ever have a week or two where you can seemingly get it “wrong” really often? Parenting. It’s hard work. This is where I add the caveat of how I love being a parent, we love our kids and all that jazz, but whatever. Some weeks it’s just HARD and ANNOYING. And you’re constantly baffled as to why everything you say or do is WRONG WRONG WRONG! In the interests of sharing my misery to make me feel better, or in the hopes of solidarity in the comments section, here are 20 terrible things we’ve done to our kids recently.

Cersei asking for more wine.

Parents be like…

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