I am apparently a cruel, cruel mother according to random lady in Tesco. Are you?

[peppapighastakenovermylife]

Cruel she called me. Actually followed me down the aisle berating me and asking 'poor, poor, sweet little' DD (yeah right!) if she was ok.

My crime?

I let DD carry the loaf of bread. She asked to carry it. It was a half sized loaf. She was perfectly happy and enjoying helping. Believe me she would have dropped it if under any strain or discomfort

DD is nearly 3. Apparently this is akin to child cruelty and needs intervention. DD who is well known for her withering looked, looked at her as if she was barking (perceptive) and hugged the bread tighter. This just caused more horror.

So what random things have strangers decided you do which makes you a bad parent? I am used to the DS2 not having any socks thing but it is his main mission in life to lose as many as possible. But this one seemed rather odd...

My DTDs (aged 4.5) like to push the trolley in the supermarket. They can't really see over it, so I have to steer, but they are determined little things and insist on doing it. I don't even pay them (evil mother)

Gwendoline "

"pleaded out of me"

I shall use this for ever more, what a perfect way to describe your children utterly fleecing you

I can see it now

Dh: "Son, where did you get that milkshake from?"

Ds "Mum"

Dh ----> toward Me

Me: But he pleaded it out of me

Perfect, thank you

Everyspring - genius

Apparently I was a "nasty" cause I let DS jump in puddles (and he DID have wellies on) cause of all the washing!!! I did retort that "oh he's allowed and so is his mum" and jumped in a massive one In her defence I don't think she realised I was his mum, me being a little older than most!

I always get my 2.8 year old to carry some of the bags the sainsburys man delivers. They put about two things in each bag so it's not as if she can't handle it!

What a weird thing to object to! children of that age tend to love carrying things round the shops and getting shopping off the shelves, putting away sainsburys deliveries etc. I get my ds doing all of that too, it's good for their self esteem to feel useful

She should see how much my daughter (4y) does, I call her my litter picker. I'm on crutches so rely on her a lot.

I had a mad woman screech at me on the bus once because she didn't have a hat and gloves on. She was actually inside my coat under three layers of fleece wrap and my cardigan. She used to pull her arms out when we got on the bus so she could see what was happening but would put herself back inside when we got off. I've had a few complaints about how both girls are dressed but considering they're in the same clothes as me I don't see why they need more layers without overheating!

ooooh this sounds familiar....a while back now, with dd2 in tescos, letting her push the trolley (laden with treats and goodies) at her insistence, a mad bat lurched at us and said 'poor little mite, making her push this, it's too heavy' and wrenched the trolley handle from her

"what?" i barked

"it shouldn't be allowed...she's only little" the woman hissed at me.

"Eh?" says I

and then she delivered the killer line (it was December)

"....and at Christmas, too! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

a mother's place is in the wrong eh?!

I once got a lecture from a woman while travelling by plane (so there was no escape). We were on the way back from our first family holiday in Spain with DD aged 1, who was playing very nicely with her new first doll which she had fallen in love with in a toy shop in Spain. The woman told me we were gender-sterotyping her and should not have bought her a doll, we should have given her something "neutral." Rather took away my enjoyment in seeing our first child pointing excitedly at the baby dolls saying "baba! baba!"

I've also had comments in the hairdresser's that DS' hair was too short and he was going to get cold. In the same sentence the lady remarked that DD's hair could be doing with a good cut though.

Now the DCs are older I am really cruel and when we arrive in airports (we live overseas so travel quite a bit) I refuse to pay for the luggage trolleys and they each have to pull a big bag.

I was once berated by another mother on the school playground because my then 2 year old DS2 only had socks on his feet and not shoes (he was in the buggy, by the way, not walking ).

"Where are his shoes? Where are his shoes? He is cold"

I took enormous pleasure in showing her his shoes which were in the shopping basket of the buggy, DS2 having wrenched them off his feet and flung them over the side of the buggy two or three times on the walk to school.

When I was a toddler apparently I loved nothing more than to push the trolley round the supermarket.

Stranger's jaws would drop and there was much muttering about child labour and exploitation.

Expecto, I heard Nikki off Big Brother then "Who is she? Who is she?"

I get a lot of stick with mine because I don't bother with socks, partly because they spend so much time in the sling and partly because being premature they don't fit in socks until they're quite a bit older (even when they're long enough for them they have no fat in their feet so they're baggy and don't stay on).

OMG. The "kindly" observers on here would have 7 varieties of kittens if they saw what DS (8) and DD (4) are expected to do.

They fetch laundry, clear tables, set tables, empty dishwasher (well, sort of, it's a little approximate) and put away shopping. They are currently bossing each other up the stairs to shower and strip their beds....

Absolutely. Just as annoying, only less well-groomed.

I agree about the socks. My DD was a full term baby but no fat on her whatsoever, don't think she successfully wore socks until she was walking.

Honeydragon now I know why I was your favourite MNetter of the evening yesterday :o I couldn't remember having done anything wonderful!

DD has pleading down to a fine art for one so young. She doesn't throw a strop, she looks at me with cow eyes and cuddles me and and ever so politely repeats "Please mummy, please mummy, pleeease mummy" ad infinitum.

Little bugger.

Once when I was on maternity leave with dc1 (I was aged 30), I was walking round a park with her in a sling one morning and had a gentleman harangue me about why I wasn't at school... he seriously accused me of truancy.

I decided I had to feel happy that it was a comment on how good my skin looked that he thought I was under 16...

Sorry, to explain why I thought that was relevant: it was proof to me of how many mad people are out there who feel themselves called upon to police the rest of the population!

I got completely flamed on here for not making DS wear socks as a non-walking one year old

oh god the comments about socks have brought it all flooding back - we never bothered with socks/shoes when they were little, for no reason other than it was too much off a faff. The number of comments we got from interfering bonkers people in supermarkets was amazing.

Also we got our first telling off from a passing stranger when ds1 was 2 days old for taking him home from the hospital without a hat on - this was in a car seat carrier from the hospital front door to the car parked about 4 feet away....

The other thing that winds me off the clock is when we're at ballet (which we are a lot with DD), and there will be about a hundred little pink-leotard clad girls zooming around the place shrieking and giggling and even jumping on furniture in the waiting area.

Meanwhile, my two DSes (who, granted, I have fixed under my proven death-stare) are sitting minding their own business.

As soon as one DS so much as unfurls his legs, or asks what's for tea, I have the busybodies tutting and saying obliquely 'oh, well that's boys for you'.

I like to think of them as the Interferi

This all tickled me!

I am horrible to my daughter. I ask her to put her own rubish in the bin (inside one), help take the plates out by carrying her own plastic plate out, help me wash the dishes, help load/unload the washing machine and dryer and more often than not she will get her own dust pad and brush and help tidy crumbs up off the floor. Every time we have to buy loo roll or nappies she carries them home herself. Poor slave driven child :o

Boo is a pretty helpful toddler tbf. Makes days go quicker if she helps too. She has worked out the quicker the dishes are done etc the quicker we can play.

I used to use micropore to hold socks on with my eldest. I'd pull them up, micropore around her ankles then fold the sock over so you couldn't see the tape. I realised it wasn't for any reason but to complete her outfit and a total faff. I've had to thread NB trousers with ribbon in place of a belt to keep them up (just becaue a prem baby is out of prem clothes doesn't mean they fit into normal clothes!) and I'd rather be doing that than putting micropore around her ankles when she's going to be wrapped up inside my clothes - well, I'd rather not do either but the whole dressing a premature baby is a complete faff however you look at it.

Boo when I make a cup of tea I get DS to fetch the milk for me and put it away again (stupid kitchen with only plug socket for kettle on the opposite corner of the room to the fridge)

Someone had best phone social services now. My 11.5 month old is handed things to carry / hold chew on when she is sitting in the trolley.