What's the most irritating piece of unsolicited parenting advice you've ever endured?

[HumphreyComfreyCushion]

One of mine was:
being told by a woman serving in a mobile fish and chip van that I was damaging my children's career prospects by home educating them.

[nzshar]

Reading Bugmums post a bit down the page reminded me of an incident i had with ds.
Had to go to hospital when ds was 6 weeks to check hips (breech birth) they were running very late and managed to call us in just as he was getting hungry. Well needless to say he got agitated and the screams were getting more high pitched the woman doing the scan was taking ages as there was a student learning how to do the scan as well. Suddenly she turned to me and in a harsh voice said "dont you have a dummy or something for him?" To which i replied in a very harsh manner myself "no he needs a bf and if you dont mind can we finish this so i can feed him unless you want to wait till i bf him now??!!" Needless to say she finished rather fast and we left

[saltire]

Not so much advice, but when Dh phoned his mum to say that DS2 had been born, her reply was "Oh well, never mind". In response to the fact that he was a boy. She now has 2 sons and 4 grandsons. She often makes comments like
"oh i thought you or x might have had a girl for me" WTF. I pointed out that she was very lucky because she has 4 healthy grandchildren, and she should think of her friend, who has 1 daughter who has had 4 mcs, and another daughter who had a still birth, but no, she still moans.
She also said to me recently
"Ds2 is 6 now you would think you would have lost some of that weight, i suppose that what comes from being a childminder, yu sit on your arse all day eating biscuits and reading magazines

[Katy44]

Have been laughing at some of these threads, shocked at others - especially the "give that 5mo a slap" type ones.
I'm pregnant with my first at the moment, and it's good to know the 'advice' only gets worse when you give birth. So far I've been told (by exclusively childless friends) that I can't eat eggs, cheese (ALL cheese) milk or any nuts. Not to mention don't stand up / sit down...move at all
Luckily both my mum and MIL both have the attitude "well that's not how we did it but obviously things have changed, and you follow current advice" - I hope that carries on!!

[LoveMyGirls]

dd1's bio dad's mother (who hit him with a frying pan round the head when he was growing up and had left her kids to live with their alcoholic abusive father!!!!!! not a great choice to choose between but still.......mothers don't usually leave their kids imo) came to see dd1 at my mums house when she was 6 weeks old, when she arrived dd1 was crying so she told me i needed to feed her, when i said i just had she told me i was starving her and that i wasn't a very good mum (i was 17) i told her fuck off, off my drive and never come back - she hasnt dd1 is now 7. and hasn't seen her bio dad since she was 6mths old either. no loss

[HellyMnelly]

On telling the a nurse how pleased I was that DS had got himself into a routine, she replied gleefully that 'once you think they're settled they just change straight away, it never gets easier' etc etc This was 11 months ago, we're still going on the same and he's perfectly happy.

Also a childless friend telling me after the birth of DS that she would never want to have children but all that long holiday (by which she meant maternity leave) would be lovely. I suggested that it's definitely not a holiday, particularly when you've been in a mental hospital because of the severity of PND. She paused then said 'Yes, but still' Wtf!?!

[JennyLeevesmilkandcookiesforSa]

lol my mum told me told me that too!

[HotterOtter]

a woman told me that i had made my son bow legged by letting him walk ????????????

[JennyLeevesmilkandcookiesforSa]

mt sister recently when i said my ds wont stay in the garden 'you should beat him then to make him listen to you' emm...no!

when he was 2 and we all went swimmng 'let go of him in the water and see if he swims' NO!

an aunt when he was a few weeks old 'make sure he wears a hat it will make his head rounder'

the day I got him from hospital after having the baby and trying to breastfeed with cracked nipples, to get the right effect repeat over and over for about 3 hours while imagining trying to learn to latch on a screamng child to your breast 'he is not getting enough , give him formula' 'look he is suffering' - thanks mom

advice about breastfeeding in first few days at home i ended up nearly starving (was anxious first time mother) dont drink tea or coffee or eat chocolate or too much salad or bread or greasy food it wwill upset the baby' there were more things not to eat but cant remember them

at 11months old in hospital with gastro enteritis from picking up and tasting a bottle of formula milk left on floor of friends house ' nurse watches me bf and ds being sick instantly and attached to me to me as he was starving and in pain 'don't you think nature is trying to tell you something isnt it time he was weaned?
erm..NO!

[wheelsanddollbaby]

My son was crying once(not uncommon for a three year old!) when we were walking to the shops,as I was holding an umbrella(drizzling a bit) and he wanted to hold it.A man came up to me and told me that I must carry my child because it was obvious he was tired! How would he know?
Also, my son was born in January and at somepoint in March I took him to my local supermarket (5 mins walk away) at midday. It was a cold day(no snow) and he was wearing a padded all-in-one coat with hat and hood on, in a baby carrier with my coat zipped up around him.A male cashier told me that I mustn't take my son out in such cold weather. Anyone would think I had him out in a blizzard wearing only a string vest!

[HappyMumof2]

Message withdrawn

[Bugmum]

Evil night nurse. Emergency C-section at nine pm; me bf DS in the middle of the night. Her:
'His cries don't sound normal, you know. Your milk isn't coming in - you'll need a top-up bottle.'

I am still angry about it. Btw, I breastfed exclusively for 6 months, and then carried on bfing while giving solid food until DS was a year, all without top-ups, so yah-boo-sucks. I have nothing against mixed feeding, but I would so have hated for her to have ANY vindication

[Sprogstersmum]

The' just you wait till...' always annoys me. Was told DD would be a nightmare once she crawled and she's fine and now it's 'just you wait till she walks..' alternating with 'Isn't she walking yet?"
Old git in supermarket once when DD was around 4 months old and needed feeding but I had to queue to pay first "What that baby needs is a dummy" No, what she needs is some milk - shall I just whip my boob out in the queue?" I was furious!! It was a year ago now and it still makes me mad to think of it.

[bubbly1973]

lol bluejelly, actually giving a chip to eat is far better than just letting them suck on one

i mean would you or anyone want to suck the grease off a chip? yuck, not one of mil's better ideas!!

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

Have also heard the phrase, "making rod for own back".

MW standing at head of ward looking at us all in various stages of recovering from c-sections:-
"Some of you will be back in a year's time".

Had I been able to move (still had catheter in bladder and canula in arm) and or talk in any coherant manner (still woosy from the GA) I would have had words!.

[moondog]

odoo,lmao at breast draining mw!!

[clemsterdarcy]

gawd ffs!

surprised you didnt respond with

noone said i couldnt slap you round the face with a wet kipper!!!!!

[bluejelly]

Just remembered I gave my nephew of 8 months a chip the other day.
I think I need to withdraw from the arena of motherhood. Am obviously deeply irritating to the world

[bluejelly]

Also the one about bf helping you to lose weight. Well it worked for me!

[bluejelly]

Oh dear I fear I am guilty of dishing out loads of unwelcome advice

Esp the one about sleeping when the baby sleeps.
But I did follow what I preached and had a mornng nap every time my dd had hers for the first year. I am sure it kept me sane but obviously virtually impossible with a toddler in the house...

[missymoosal]

From one of the mothers I met through SANDS after our fullterm babies had been stilborn.
Midwife asked her if she had bought anything for the baby. When my friend said she had the mw said
'Oh Dear well you know that's bad luck you know' her dd had just been taken to the mortuary.

[VoodooBanana]

'keep bf and all of that weight will just fall off'


my mother.

[Skribble]

LadyMac, that one is a gem, my DS latched on for about 2 hrs and just sucked and sucked while I slept and DH held in place and sawpped him over. After over 48hrs in labour it was what we all needed.

My MIL is bad for telling mums there baby needs fed, well actually she says "oh is he needing the boob" , she is lovely really.


And She asked a teenage shop assistant if she had been squeezing her spots as she had a little blood on her face. . I had a go at her for that one and she said its OK I know her well. I tried to explain that in front of her collegues she would have been mortified as I am everytime she comments on me squeezing mine, she did blush and looked suitably shocked and embarissed so I hope she has taken that one on board.

[Chandra]

PMSL Voodoo

[VoodooBanana]

also, mw in hospital said 'you must NEVER let the baby drain your breast.
me (terrified) - ok, what does that feel like?

mw - I dont know.