Stranger parenting advice? ( Really more a rant maybe)?

J

Julie S

New member
I went to Walmart today with all four of my children (ages 6,5,3 and 2) and my 4 month old niece that I watch full time. I had to get a prescription for my 3 year old, for an ear infection and Walmart is the ONLY place in town that will take our prescription insurance. Of course it was gonna be an hour wait to get the prescription filled and since I live 30 minutes away from the store, so I needed to just wait. So the kids and I were wondering through the store, picking up a few things we could use, and killing time. Now my children are very well behaved 90% of the time, but my 3 year old was just being a complete pill and not feeling well on top of it. She was having the hugest melt down over her two year olds sisters feet touching her in the back of the cart. I was trying to be very patient with her, asking her if she wanted to walk instead, trying to explain that no matter how they sat they were going to touch because the cart is not very big etc. But she kept kept crying and screaming, so finally I just determined that we would go wait in the van in the parking lot, better for everyone right? As we are heading out of the store, this lady probably about my age (26) with her newborn baby walks up to me and says, "If my child every acted like that I would be so embarrassed! She needs a good spanking! What is her problem?"

I looked at her and said," Her problem is that she is 3 and doesn't feel good. What is your excuse?"

Then she says to ME, " Sheesh no need to be rude!"

Can you believe the nerve of some people? Ugh I feel better, thanks for listening all you sane mommies out there!
Have you ever had anything like this happen to you? How did you handle it?
Thank you everyone! Just for the record no thumbs down for me except for the obvious troll!
 
oh my gosh - don't you just want to strangle people sometimes. my son is only 8 months so i haven't had to deal with that yet, but i definitely get the unwanted advice all the time. a couple weeks ago i even had a lady tell me my son was behind developmentally. her son is 1 1/2 months younger than mine. she asked if mine was crawling yet and i told her that he was doing the belly crawl thing. her response was "that's what mine is doing. yours should be doing more than that by now." i don't know if my son is behind or not, but i certainly didn't need her opinion. hope your little one is feeling better soon.
 
honestly, what did you expect? you were in a walmart. goes with the territory. don't worry about it.

edit - yeah really... who is the obvious troll? I''ve read everyone's answer and no one seems like an obvious troll here - but youre right, it is more of a rant.
 
Alright... a woman with 5 unruly kids in a Walmart who can't just get the two year old to stop touching the three year old and instead makes the three year old throw a tantrum... come on now...if the shoe fits, wear it.

I'm NOT a troll. Just because you didn't want to hear it, doesn't mean it isn't true.
 
The lady was a nosy busybody and had no right to say that to you. You handled it perfectly. Ignore her and move on. She really isn't worth wasting your time worrying about. She's probably a backwards hick, and she's obviously low class.
 
i have two children, ages 3 and 5 months. i am also 26. older people often come up to me and tell me that 'you should really let her walk (the 3 yr old) she will get fat and lazy if she doesn't walk around'. I reply (usually) 'that if i let her down, will you either hold my baby (i keep her in a carrier) or will you be willing to chase her down the aisles?' they usually get pissed and walk away like i offended them.

BTW my 3 yr old is only in the 60% for her age, she is VERY active and prefers fruit to cake (i tried to get her to eat her birthday cupcake this past sunday and she bit it once and said, mama, i want raisins). i think her sitting down for a while is fine. she eats ALL DAY LONG, but she only wants things like apples, carrots, salads, hot dogs, mac and cheese with carrots and brocolli., don't even get me started on the people in the grocery store when i ask her which salad does she want. they ALWAYS look at me ike i am starving her and say, why don't you get her some candy or something? so i say, because she'll throw it away and scream for apples.
people always think that they know better than you do. my mother even thought that i was lying on my three yr old, because i would tell her things that she was doing, know that she actually spends time in the evenings with her, she is finding out....
 
I think every parent has had a moment when our children are out of sorts in a public place. Your solution was not wrong. I suspect that the other parent was not expecting you to be so honest about the reason for the problem. People often fail to stop and consider that a meltdown moment may not be a child's normal behavior. She was probably more embarrassed because you smacked down her assumptions about your child's behavior.

I hope your little one feels better!
 
Never happened to me, but this lady was just plain rude!!!! You said that she had a newborn so she really hasn't been there yet.

My daughter is usually very good in stores but one night she was a complete nightmare. She was screaming and crying and the whole store could hear her. I was so frustrated and upset with her. The next day she woke up and was throwing up. She had obviously been feeling sick but couldn't tell me.

Thing is - you have to be in tune with your kids and recognize that the behavior is out of character. As you did when you realized she didn't feel good. Be glad that you didn't spank her!!!!!!

Plus, I've seen some pretty bad behavior in stores and I would NEVER judge. This lady was an idiot. No point in stewing over it. Too bad you just didn't tell her what you thought of her. Good luck to her kid!
 
Ugh I hate waiting for prescriptions at wal-mart. Actually one time I was waiting for one also with my sick son, he was acting up, so I went to the toy isle to find something to keep him occupied. I went back to stand in line and some man in front of me said "oh so he's one of THOSE kids that gets a toy every time he acts up" I told him I wasn't actually buying the toy, and I'm sure he would rather watch my son play with a toy then scream in his ear the whole time we were in line, and he didn't say anything again.
I just love it when people with young kids, or no kids try to tell other people how to handle their toddlers and older kids, we went on vacation one time, and my aunts 2 year old was walking around the yard, exploring like any 2 year old, my aunt who didn't have any kids and was pregnant at the time said "when I have my kid she wont be walking around the yard like that!" So I can't wait to see how she plans on getting her 2 year old to sit there while she's consumed in her adult talk and too lazy to walk around with it :)
 
i use to think that way. i would say to whoever i was with "if my child ever!!" but i would never say it to the parent. i now have two young children and would never even think that way again. i know feel sorry for every mom or dad who has a kid in the store throwing a fit sometimes i go up to them and say i completely understand i feel ya. but some people can be so rude. after my daughter was born she had slight hematomas (almost like large cones on both side of head) and grown adults would come up to me and say what's wrong with your kids head? luckily its cleared up now but i wanted to be like oh hers will go away and she'll be perfect but what about your stupidity?
 
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