WIBU to have entered in to a Loud Parenting stand-off at the library?

[welliesandpyjamas]

I think I know I WBU. In fact, I have brought shame on MN by stooping to these levels rather than just smirking and ignoring. I apologise.

I arrived early with DS2 to library rhymetime and was sitting reading quietly in the corner. Other mum comes in and announces to the whole place to her toddler that they will now sit and read. Cue LOUD reading of and over the top expressions and actions to the disinterested child. Very LOUD and ARTICULATED. And for some reason, I decided to out-loud-parent her and do the same, but going up one, by reading the bilingual books

In my defence, I did very quickly get a grip and stop.

She didn't, though. Went on for another 15 minutes and then was the loudest singer with the biggest actions during Rhymetime. Her dc did I mention his name was Zebediah? was more interested in making piles of books and picking his nose.

Okay, sorted PP

Was just making some flashcards for the Junior Choir, but I had DD on the shop floor on a blanket, so it looked to innocent bystanders like I was using the very complicated music flashcards on her

I enjoyed a great moment in the changing rooms after swimming this week. A little girl started to talk to DS and I about how old he was and whether he went to nursery. Her mother's ears pricked up and she ran from changing her son to prompt her daughter into telling me which nursery she was at, with eyes full of glee (lots of catchment wars round here). The daughter had no idea, so the mother proudly filled me in, nodding all the while.

Another Mum and I exchanged looks and I really struggled not to laugh.

It got better as she spoke very loudly to her son, who was just hanging around, looking completely fine, 'I thought your teacher was so horrible to you, I nearly had to go and tell her off (WTF??!). I mean, you were touching the sides and she had asked you not to, but so were all the other children. I though she was completely wrong and very unkind'.

I mean come on; get so excited about having your children at apparent best school that you look constipated, but go on to teachers in general and instill a lovely superiority complex in your child. She was so deeply annoying.

I think I did it on my first train trip with DD1 aged 3. "Look darling theres a sheep, how marvellous, lots of new lambs, and a river all rushing by etc etc". Finally DD1 said "can you be quiet please mummy" which shut me up have not done this since.

My mum was definitely a PP . She used to force us into museums and read each notice very loudly to us, when we were quite able to read ourselves. Even at seven years old I was cringing.

How I love performance parents ! They always make me want to go really really Jeremy Kyle just to wind them up . DD1 went to a very posh nursery ( on free sessions! ) where the kids were given different uniforms to wear , depending on whether they were going to continue with fee paying private school, or go to the local (excellent) primary . Each year, the easter bonnet competition was fierce as it was decided by the head . All manner of Philip Treacy confections wafted into the school over the week, and I , being on shifts , had forgotten . Cue one manic trip to the local craft shop, to buy all manner of napkins with lambs on, yellow tissue paper , and yellow Easter chicks . Craft not being my thing, it ended up being a joint effort involving us throwing paper eggs , hay, you name it on it .

Well. The looks we got, you'd have thought we were carrying in a turd on a plate . And then to top it off, teacher said ' what a fantastic hat, did you make it by yourself? '

To which Dd replies with a face of doom' ' yeah, 42 sodding chicks'.

And to crown it all, we won .

It's effectively like Hyacinth Bucket but with younger women, isn't it?

I wish someone would do a sitcom about this.

42 sodding chicks LOLOLOLOL!

Boffin on itv a couple of years back there was an adaptation of John O'Farrell's book "may contain nuts" which does include some PPing. :)

There is a loud performance parent at school. The first one from her was "Oh littleraver, that is soooo clever learning to ride your bike without stabilisers, at 5. Sebastian has been ridng his since he was 3 1/2.... how clever is that", and she has never shut up since. Luckily I dont have as much contact now DS has moved up a class and clever Sebby hasnt

openerofjars that is my child as well.... I have also pointed out the way to the Haribo

I was walking behind a mum with toddler in buggy. I can't work out whether she was was Ostentatious Parenting or very- Stressed-can't-stop-talking, but she was spelling out the names of everyone her daughter knew : "Harry: Aitch, Ay , Ar Ar why". I reeeely reeely wanted to butt in and tell her to do it phonetically, because that will actually be useful in a year or two.

Wonder if that was me, originaljamie When he's in the pushchair DS2 likes to pretend he is practicing for a spelling test, just like his big brother at the last minute the morning of the test on the way to school and gives me words to spell.

wellies

Do it phonetically though. Teachers will thank you for it!

ooh, my DD will be taught that we don't need synthetic phonics because we know the names and sounds of all the letters.
poncy daft system

(this one is personal - I bloody hated phonics system when I was in infant school - refused to sound out the alphabet in class (this was year 1 performance child ) - my mum got called into the class "oh, leave her, she knows how to read, so she doesn't need to do it")

I was destined to be a PP

Well, I was thinking that I should start doing it in other languages too

(thanks for the advice, though, will do)

Quite right, dd new the names and sounds of all the letters and was reading really well by the time she started school, but that's another debate.

I've just realised I may have been a guilty in the past. Dd loved to read out signs so we spent a lot of time deciphering street names and words on posters etc (wasn't doing it for an audience but realise now it may have seemed that way). The only problem came when she would read out graffiti as well. I well remember the busy street where she asked in a ringing voice "Mummy, what does F**K mean?"

stickyj our PFB has braised tofu all the way home....
convinced I do not loud parent
backs out of thread in case I spot anything else I do
:o

A very tiny DS at Wisley age 2, "Mummy do come and look at the beautiful hellebores," two elderly ladies walking past muttered, 'pretentious little brat!' while DH and I looked amazed at the child inhabited by an alien force! Who only the day before was disowned for lying on the floor in supermarket screaming, "oh fuck!"

Could have been worse, Headmistress told me off as DS had proclaimed that the way to deal with nasty people was to tell them to "sod off!" she said she had to leave the room as it made her laugh too much.

And the piece of resistance, around the same age, piped up from back of car with MIL in front, "fuck off you twat," I sunk very low into the chair!

My friend's DS nearly killed her with shame when he strode up to her at the age of three asking confidently "Mummy, may I have an olive?", in front of her boyfriend's family. Apparently they exchanged Looks.

The only loud parenting I engage in is this odd game DS and I play when we're walking around and bored. It's called "Pretend to be Rude."

One person will call the other a nonsense insult, as in "you pickle bickle!" or similar, and the other person will pretend to be very offended and say things like "Well I have never" whilst storming off in a huff.

We are a strange people.

Ariel - not bloody surprised! where was the please?!

The great thing about being a raddled and ancient mother of four is that people actually assume you are a half decent parent of some kind purely on the basis of fecundity. They don't seem to care so much if you slump down in a pub beer garden with a pint and a bag of Scampi fries, whilst waving a hand absently in the direction of the children, and instructing them to bugger off and entertain their little brother whilst you have a break from all their nonsense and flirt with their dad.

nickel

I think it was implicit in the word "may".

I would probably have been accused of PP when ds was a nipper. Truth is, he was an embarrassingly smart-arsed show off and counting and spelling games were What He Did.

Once when he was about four we whiled away the long walk between Grandma's house and the Metro station by playing a spelling game. I was giving him normal words like cat and dog and he was challenging me with the names of Robot Wars robots (his current obsession).

The game continued on to the Metro train. We played quietly (honestly not intending to be PP) and an elderly couple sitting opposite joined in, offering simple words to ds and he responded with robot names, though clearly they had no idea what they meant. Should have seen their faces when he asked them to spell Suicidal Insanity .