What's the worst unsolicited parenting advice you've been given by a stranger?

[Gemed]

I'll go first... I was walking with my nearly 1 year old in the carrier. He loves to look up at the trees and the sky. A stranger said I need to be supporting his head. He's not a newborn for christ sake! I just said he has good head control and walked on. I can deal with the 'no socks' comments but this one got me riled up.

Not advice but a profoundly stupid comment, albeit kindly meant. DS1 was born four months prematurely, so for a long time he was tiny for his age. After he’d come home from NICU, we were out one day and an woman asked how old he was. I explained that he was much older than he looked and that he’d been in NICU for months and months. She looked absolutely delighted and said enthusiastically “oh how wonderful, so you missed all of the sleepless nights then!” 😶

Not parenting advice, but an older woman (stranger) poked her head into the pram to kiss newborn DS. I had to put my hands on her to pull her away.

While on our first family holiday with DD1 sitting having lunch a random women got up from her chair to leave, pulled Dd1s dummy out and threw it across the floor. I was honestly speechless as were the other tables.

More of an unsolicited comment. Took my ASD 4 year old to the park. He gets upset because he can't play on something because another child is there. i manage to distract him to the swings which he happily sits on but is still upset from the previous one. A mother next to me goes "I don't think he likes it" as if to tell me to take him off.

It's ok I know my autistic son much better than you thanks. 🙄He wouldn't have got on if he didn't want to...

Not parenting per se but I was in a shop with my son the other day and he was asking for a toy. I said no as he gets toys all the time but he kept asking and asking and a lady next to me turned around and said aww that's a terrible shame why don't you just get him a toy?

I was horrified!! How did she know my financial situation? What if I couldn't afford a toy?

My MIL telling us constantly how my newborn needed to fit in around us and what we wanted to do and that I should stop breastfeeding …. Apparently there’s no benefits

My daughter started walking very confidently at 9 months.. just like a toddler.
A woman at a mother and baby group said to me.. " you better stop her from walking too young or her legs will end up deformed.
She's now 40 and has perfectly gorgeous legs.

I once had a woman tell me she obviously loves her kids more than me because I had long hair and she kept hers short in order to have more time with her kids each day, which was pretty weird. I hadn't had a haircut in a decade and spent 30 seconds each day sticking it in a ponytail, hers was very short, so probably 6 weekly cuts and bright red, so time spent dying it too. Never said anything because I was too gobsmacked, which is one of my biggest regrets.

I've also had strangers telling me to just smack my autistic dd when she was having meltdowns in public. Always fun.

There was also the woman who gave me unsolicited pelvic floor advice in boots after my 9lb2 ds was born..... but that wasn't parenting advice.

I’ve not really had any unsolicited comments but I had a few very judgy stares from older women when my dd had a (very rare) tantrum in town once. It was quite stressful because my other dc was a baby at the time and they were both crying. I was on my own & feeling overwhelmed trying to calm and comfort them both.

I heard two ladies muttering & saw them shaking their heads at my dd - I wanted to tell them to piss off but I didn’t obviously. I just said loudly “ she’s a toddler, we all have bad days, right?!” They just walked off without saying anything.

Abit of compassion would have been nice or a few words of solidarity, not staring looks of dismay and disapproval.

I came on here to say I was told to give my DD a dummy! Honestly... I chose not to but wouldn't dream of telling someone who did use a dummy/comforter they shouldn't...
Also, a stranger I got chatting to when DD1 was a baby said I should have another one soon as it it would be terrible for her to be an only child (I'm an only child but she didn't know that).

well the WHO says it’s best to breastfeed until at least age two so either way the advice was incorrect!

Over twenty years ago but from a health visitor.. I'd Gone in for a checkup and my son was around 3 months old. He was a titchy newborn 6.5 pounds but put on weight very quickly.
She told me that he had gone way over the weight line that he should be following (remember he's only 3 months old) and that I should stop giving him milk at night and switch to water or if he didn't like that to add a bit of juice.

DS2 was about 6 months old and I'd put him in a star print babygro.

'How old is she?'
'He's 6 months.'
'Oh it's a he, I thought it was a girl because of the stars'.
'It's unisex'.
'No it's for girls'.

Terrible nurse on maternity unit, told my DH to put newborn DS back in crib and ignore his crying. That we were spoiling him. DS was a few hours old!

I didnt say the advice was correct just thats what the lady probably meant rather than when they physically could wear shoes which as the OP pointed out could be from.birth.

My DSis's (nasty) MIL says the exact same thing to her all the time about hair! It started pre-kids..."I don't know what kind of wife you must be to my DS with all that long hair. You should be spending your time looking after him, not on your appearance and you'll have to get it cut short when you become a mother anyway so you might as well cut it now." and she's never shut up about DSis's hair since. Her own hair looks like an f-ing helmet Brillo pad. And DBIL adores his wife's long hair.

Oh yes, as though you're too stupid to have tried every single thing going 😂

I just hate any advice about "spoiling" a baby. Horrible old fashioned nonsense that is actually quite damaging.

Once got randomly told "if you carry him everywhere he'll never learn to walk" as I was carrying DS into the supermarket to pop him into a trolley. He was about 13 months old!

Another time that sticks out is when I told a fellow Mum about DS being behind in his speech she said in a patronising tone "do you read to him?" As if that would never have occurred to me!

I had a nasty sinus infection and GP advised that I buy a 'Neil Med' sinus wash bottle and saline mix {Saline sachets that shoot up into the sinuses -I thought he was joking- but I did as he advised and after a few days the horrible sinus infection had cleared.

Here is the bottle and sachets:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NeilMed-Original-Squeeze-Bottle-Sachets/dp/B07YCFS4SB/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/261-0670473-4541043?psc=1

😮 what did you do? Cheeky cow

I wonder if they are the same person. Such a weird take.

I would be interested to see the Venn diagram of crap wives/crap mums/married mums with long hair.

If the opinion of these two are anything to go by, it would just be a circle 🤣

When mine were a baby and a toddler, a woman told me I should have more self control because there are only thirteen months between my kids.

I pointed out that they’re adopted and I had no control whatsoever on when they were conceived.

This one reinforced the absolute uselessness of HVs. Got told that I'd stunted my 23 month olds speech because I give him a bottle before bed and a dummy at bedtime 🙄 could not believe my ears

I love the parenting advice, from non parents !

drives me up the wall! i now smile, nod and do not listen

My MIL - 'you shouldn't let him try to walk, he'll stunt his growth.'

OK, I'll just nail his feet to the floor then, that ought to stop him pulling himself up on everything he can, besides, he was ten months old and well able to support his own weight.