What exercises you most about other people's parenting? Fess up.

[zizou]

I am secretly very unreasonable about people who live in cities who do not vaccinate their children.

Not telling off kids in public because the parent is too embarrassed to be seen as anything other than serene, gentle and earth motherly. Or fatherly.

Eye rolling of the "Kids, eh?" variety when Jocasta pokes the new baby in the head.

"Oopsy!" when Tarquin punches a smaller child in the kidneys.

"Oh please darling, not the napalm, you know how daddy gets upset when we blast the neighbourhood."

I live in a rough area....

People who scream and get their kids to do the same if a dog is within 10 feet of them.

that's the kind of thing I meant WT

YES climbingwalls.

"Quentin simply adores feta cheese, he gets terribly upset if we don't get some EVERY time we're at Fortnum's."

I hate people who stick their pushchairs out into the road when they want to cross.

I hate people who suck on their childrens dummys to clean them.

I hate people who lay bottles of milk/juice in their newborn babies prams for their babies to drink unaided whilst walking down the road.

I hate people who dont use lids on thieir babies bottles and just leave them open to the elements whilse wandering down the road.

I hate to see newborns propped up in those cheap strollers(the ones from 6 months)

I hate those travel systems where you put the newborn in a car seat.

Oh I could go on and on.

lol wanderingtrolley, sounds like the parenting I witnessed in the area I used to live in!

Oh and people who let their kids go up to dogs without asking first if said dog is oaky with kids.

AND people who think it's okay for their kids to make barking noises at my dogs. Thankfully they dont react but I bet if they barked back said parents would be corss.

giving children shit food
not letting kids get dirty

Nothing annoys me any more apart from abuse, cruelty and neglect obviously.

Oh and one today I was going down the M25 a car bombed it past me so fast driving very fast & recklessley(sp?) undertaking, ducking and diving etc inevertably he turned off at the same junction as me (didnt get him far) he had a newborn baby in the back!!

Oh god climbingwalls it think i'm a bit like that! (not with the posh names though) I was congratulating myself the other day on my 2 year old tucking into olives and hummus and pita bread while my friends child would only eat cheese and white bread. I didnt' say it out loud, but i had a smug face on, i'm sure. God i'd hate me!

Getting cross with kids for doing normal kids stuff, like touching everything, dropping things, being slow etc etc.

Saying "don't be a baby" or "only babies cry" to little kids.

Saying " oh grow up" to children. WTF???

I agree with the getting dirty thing too. Always feel a bit sorry for kids whose only experience of arty stuff is aquadraw mats and those crayola pens that only work on the crayola colouring pads, just incase the cream carpets and cream upholstery gets dirty.

Whats wrong with toddlers standing in the trolly?

lol Boco, shame on you!!

I meant more the parents who think it is only their little darlings who eat such 'exotic' food, when actually those foods are a staple for a lot of kids these days, because it is what a lot of parents eat

There isn't much. I often think 'there but for the grace of God'. But I really don't like it when parents allow their kids to be rude and inconsiderate to others, drop litter, swear at each other, and generally behave boorishly in public... when they are there to stop them doing it!

That isn't parenting. Parenting IMO is about showing kids how to be a human being and to get along with other human beings, and how not to make other people's lives worse. God that sounds really old-fashioned .

mamma2kids: they might squash the food?

Health and safety I'd guess.

I let my DS, there's more chance of him hurting himself in the park...

When you work in a shop and a parent with a child "misbehaving" is told:

"If you don't behave THE LADY will tell you off/smack you/throw you out"

was always tempted to shout NO I WON'T!!!

meant that the parent tells the child

Saying "Dont be such a girl" to a little boy.

When parents plead with their kids to behave rather than tell them. Pathetic.

iuse the lady int eh shop thing
works a treat

or saying "be a man" to a little boy who is crying because he hurt himself.

I have recently discovered a good trick to staying calm whilst in sole charge of a ...ahem...mischevious pre-schooler in the shops. Hurt your ankle. Because there is bugger all you can do about it if he runs off so somehow it all becomes easier to cope with - you calm down and he calms down. Was in shoe shop a few weeks ago and he was winding me up by pretending to run out of the shop - I could do nothing, was not prepared to bellow fishwife stylee, so ignored him. Shop assistants were very impressed! DS#2 was disappointed and came back looking crestfallen. Result!

Excellent OrmIrian! I too am not prepared to bellow fishwife stylee after DS. After a few 'scares' where he couldn't find me after running off (but don't panic, I could see him the whole time) he stays close by so that, in his words "you don't get lost again mummy".