If you have kids and have ever taken then grocery shopping, then you know the pain. The constant entertaining, the avoiding the snack aisle, the panic of waiting in line in fear that they could melt down any moment…
Most people are empathetic if they see a mom with a crying baby. In fact, some may even offer to help, especially if they’ve been in the position before and know how hard it can be.
However, ever so often, you come across someone who doesn’t quite get it. And that’s what mom of two, Tracy Bennett, had to deal with during a solo trip to Costco with her 2-year-old son Elliot and 7-month-old son Isaac.
Tracy and her littlies were waiting in the member services line after she realized she misplaced her card and needed a new one. After 15 minutes, they started getting fussy—as babies do. So instead of minding his own business or helping, one man decided to lean over to her and tell her “You see these babies? They fuss like that because they want your attention. Maybe you should get off of your phone and give them your attention.”
Tracy vented about the moment in her now viral Facebook post. “First of all, I had no idea the toddler saying, “Mama, pizza, mama, pizza” over and over and the baby making pre-cry warnings to alert me that if we don’t move soon he’s gong to lose it wanted my attention. Thank you for that brilliant analysis of the situation,” she wrote.
The post details all the reasons her babies got a bit fussy, and just how hard she was trying to defuse the situation—and how much worse this man made it.
“Thank you for your parenting advice,” she wrote to the man in her post. “Thank you for taking the time out of your day to shame a young mother with two tiny children. Thank you for seeing a stressful moment and deciding, ‘I think I’ll make this worse for her.’”
The whole point of the post was to explain that a mom in public with her kids is likely stressed out—and instead of shaming her, you should really try to help instead.
“Everyone, if you see a mother (or father) with young children out in public ANYWHERE, assume she is stressed out.” Tracy wrote. “Assume she is trying her damndest to get through the situation. Assume this is the very last place she wants to be. Assume she’d rather be home cuddling, playing, running around with her babies. Assume she probably has had no sleep since her first child was born. Assume she is hungry because her toddler decided he wanted extra eggs this morning so she gave him her breakfast in addition to his own. And if you have nothing kind or supportive to offer her, please mind your own business.”
What do you think of how this man approached this mom? What would you have done if you were in this situation?