Put a f*cking blanket over your baby

[Noti23]

It’s horrible day- freezing light rain that sticks to your & face ice cold wind.

Nevertheless, am I still seeing 6 month old babies being strolled around in the pram wearing nothing but a coat, jeans and socks. No blanket, no raincover. Meanwhile their parents are dawdling by wearing a nice thick coat, a hat and a pair of gloves.

Are these people stupid or lazy? AIBU?

If you had genuine concerns about the welfare of a child, then yes you should have done something about it at the time.

Ranting about it on MN does nothing to help the baby in question and just comes across as judgmental and smug.

I remember an incident with my daughter as a two year old. I had no car at the time and used to walk to my mum's house, 2 miles away, every day. It was a very cold, snowy, icy winter and I used to put my daughter into her pushchair dressed in trousers, top, socks, boot, coat, hat gloves and then cover her with my nice thick woollen shawl. I thought she would be fine. Once I went to mum's and my daughter was crying by the time we got there, and my mum picked her up and told me her little bottom was freezing. I felt really guilty as it hadn't occurred to me to pad the pushchair as well. After that my stepfather was detailed, by my mum, to pick us up while the weather was so cold.

If they are in a pushchair and not moving themselves then they will get cold.

Wow apparently it's 10 degrees here! Feels like about 1. I'm inside with the heating on full in a dressing gown over my clothes and my hands are like ice.

I just used to stuff mine into them jojo fleecy suits with hand & feet covers, job done .

I had to report a parent to SS many years ago, we lived in the North of Scotland and the woman always had a calf length sheepskin coat on with a russian style fur hat, knee length leather boots and gloves on, she would walk her child to Creche through the sleet and snow wearing a summer dress, a summer weight cardigan, short white socks and sandals. The poor child would cry as her little body started to warm up once she was inside for 10 minutes. I asked her mum if she could bring a coat and she ignored me. She went home and told her Husband who was a high ranking Officer in the R.A.F, he called me and screamed down the phone at me, calling me all sorts.
Seems they didnt know the little one was cold as she never told them !

People take it personally OP because everyone on here wants to do the best for their babies and so even though we as mums know what is best for our babies, as human beings many of us are insecure and/or afraid of judgment despite the amazing instinct for knowing what our baby needs (coat, blanket, extra layers, fewer layers, whatever). So posts like yours - in which you seem to expect to be congratulated for your incredible parenting and joined in smug condemnation of anyone who doesn’t agree - are at best really bloody annoying, and at worst playing on people’s insecurities which might in turn lead to them overdressing their babies and overheating them - which, as has already been pointed it, is far more dangerous.

I have just been out with my baby, appropriately dresses. Loads of babies out and I have never seen what you describe.
How do you know they are all 6 months old? My baby is 4.5 months but tiny-how would you know her age before judging what she is wearing? You sound unhinged!

@GivenchyDahhling

I realise that. I posted in the heat of the moment while I was kicking myself for not saying something to her. I shouldn’t have posted about it so generally. Anyway, I’ve calmed down but feel quite guilty now.

Surely if they were that uncomfortable they’d be crying?

I think overdressing a child in the summer is worse. They get so weak they can’t even alert you to the danger, and can die.

Being cold is fine. If they’re that cold they’d be crying about it.

I judge everyone, but I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with taking a baby outside with a coat on at these temperatures. I AM more worried about people who go the other way and dress their kids for the Arctic

If a baby is too cold, it will cry/shiver

That is a misconception. Cold babies often go withdrawn, lethargic and not very alert.

Be the parent and find a solution to a baby kicking everything off. Layers, tights, toe muffs, tie the blanket to the buggy, it's not impossible.
How do you think parents manage in arctic conditions? They find a way.

It's a sad world if everyone had to mind their own business and ignore what others are doing. That actually has terrible implications for society on a wider scale.
I'm sick of hearing accusations of "ooh Judgemental I suppose your perfect! when somone dares to express an opinion on here.

you seriously need to mind your own business. If they were cold they'd be crying, end of story.

Cold babies cry.
Hot babies die.

It's a sad world if everyone had to mind their own business and ignore what others are doing.

But the OP did ignore it. Posting about it here after the event does nothing to actually help the baby in question. What do you think posts like this achieve other than making the OP feel good?

(Although given it's 12 degrees and the child had a coat on I'm really struggling to imagine they were particularly uncomfortable, let alone at any risk).

Mine was a proper wriggler at that age so I got a cozy toes he couldn't escape from a couple of snow suits so no need for shoes (before he was walking).

Yanbu op. Yes toddlers are different and I'm fairly convinced they don't actually feel the cold in the same way adults do (what with the metabolism on overdrive doing all that growing and whatnot) but tiny babies with red cold hands and feet does make feel quite sad for them.

Equally the ones who don't put on sunscreen in summer because 'they look so cute with a little tan' (note, not the ones that tan as soon as looking at a particularly bright light bulb, my cousin was like this and no amount of factor 50 would stop him going brown)

smileyClaire - completely agree!!

I’m glad you didn’t say anything to her.
I’ll never forgot one time I was on the bus and someone ‘called me out’ on the fact my child didn’t have shoes or socks on.
We were running late for an important medical appointment, because I couldn’t get on the first 2 buses with my pram.
Both myself and dd were unwell. I had (what I now know was) PND, was struggling to bf and had a traumatic birth. My dd had an undiagnosed medical condition and was a very difficult baby. Didn’t sleep well, didn’t feed well and cried a lot. I was exhausted and in pain.
We had been on the bus a few minutes before she pulled them off and I let her because I’d already put them back on countless times at the stop. A woman approached me and basically told me I should be ashamed, it was cold, I didn’t know how to look after a child AND I had made sure I had my shoes and socks on, hadn’t I?
I got to the hospital to find out there had been an administrative error and our appointment was cancelled. I sat in the empty waiting room and wept. The poor staff member who told us the appointment was cancelled didn’t know what to do. I honestly think looking back I had some sort of breakdown that day.
You should MYOB and give the mother a break. You have no idea what her life is like.

There is nothing wrong with judging. We should all do a bit more of it!

I agree with @SmileyClare, a baby can certainly be showing physical signs of struggling with the cold which aren't always obvious. If it's tricky getting layers on then a pramsuit or adding blankets when they are strapped into the pram and can't chuck them out, or something like that. Hard to judge when you see someone in the street for a brief moment though, some people layer up with vests etc underneath outside layers.

If baby was cold baby would cry!!Am more concerned about over heated babyish!! If I was concerned I would have said something,not gone straight to mumsnet!>

You sound like the old dears who used to stop me and ask whether my baby/toddler oughtn't to have a hat on.

Well, ideally, but she lobbed it off about 50 yards back and it dematerialised. As did her socks and shoes. Only the second pairs this week.

I can hardly get my 11 and 14 year olds to put a coat on even now.

Loads of them aren't wearing a hot - and a lot of them have hardly any hair, either.

It really boils my piss!

It’s not that cold and you have no idea about why the situation may be. My eldest in particular doesn’t feel the cold, but I don’t see the harm in a bit of cold or rain as long as they are generally well cared for - and you have no idea how well they are cared for unless involved in their lives.

Often on MN it’s claimed that no one is judging, everyone is too busy with their own lives. It’s clear there is a huge amount of judgement and it’s all targeted at mothers by other women who should know better. If forgetting a blanket on a day when it’s 10 degrees out is the worst of it then that baby is likely to be fine.

There is nothing wrong with judging. We should all do a bit more of it!

If that ‘judging’ leads to intervening in some way to support the mother/baby then great. But slagging off their parenting anonymously on an Internet forum? What good is that going to do?

Conversely my husband is often congratulated on his amazing parenting for taking the kids out, even if they have clearly dressed themselves and in dirty or unsuitable clothes.

If a baby’s lips are turning blue then I doubt it’s warm enough

were the babies lips turning blue? If they were you were unreasonable for not raising it at the time with the mother, letting the baby carry on being cold and coming on here to MN to complain about it.

otherwise its just pure judgement from you