I had read about this in parenting magazines, but last night, for the first time, I experienced unwanted parenting advice from a complete stranger.
Maxwell was practicing for being a terrible two and started a whining --then crying-- temper tantrum while we were in the bookstore. Naturally, I wheeled the stroller outside and we waited for Jen to finish shopping. After about 15 minutes of sitting calmly, reading the paper, waiting for Max to regain his composure, a group walks by and one of them asks "is that your baby?" I answered "yes" and she asks why he's crying. I explained "he's having a temper tantrum. Babies do that." The nice, but stupid person tells me "you should try holding him." It took a lot of restraint (and reminding myself that she probably thought she was being helpful) to keep from delivering a snide retort like "Wow... What an original, brilliant idea! Thanks Dr. Spock!" or "Oh, does that work with your (imaginary) two-year old?"
Parenting is annoying enough now and then without armchair quarterbacks implying you don't know anything about parenting.
posted on Sunday, October 01, 2006 9:17 PM