DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I was in a ladies’ room with my five-month-old son when these two middle-aged women came in while I was changing my baby’s diaper.
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We had been out at double-doctors’ appointments and I had just stopped in the food store to pick up some things for dinner when my son filled a diaper and reached his limit. He was crying, dirty, and getting hungry. I was doing my best to make it a quick change.
One of the two women turned to the other one and said something like, “Why would you make a baby go through all that? I bet she isn’t even bothering to breastfeed her own baby.”
I couldn’t believe what I heard. I said something under my breath about people should mind their own business, and the woman said to her friend again loud enough for me to hear, “Some people just don’t deserve to have babies.”
WTF? I would never say anything like that. What gave that woman the right to judge me? --- HEARD IT IN THE LADIES ROOM
DEAR HEARD IT IN THE LADIES ROOM: Over two-thousand years ago a famous Greek thinker said, “Ignorance is bold, and knowledge is reserved.”
People haven’t changed much in the last couple millennia, as you unfortunately were recently reminded. There are always those who blindly cast judgments.
On the other hand, I’ve also come across kind and considerate strangers who were more than willing to step in and help at a time of need.
You know you’re doing your best for your baby. Let the ignorant tongues wag. You’re not going to change them, and you shouldn’t let them get to you, hard as that may be to do some days.