Silence Is Golden

OK, I wasn’t going to write about this, but now that I have notched up a grand total of FIVE incidents in the past three days, I feel sufficiently annoyed to do so.

The phenomenon I’m experiencing at the moment can be succinctly described as “interfering”.

No less than five different women (yes, I’m sorry to say, this phenomenon seems to be exclusively female) have stopped me, at different times, to make some kind of interfering, judgemental comment concerning one of my kids.

The first time this happened, I was so surprised I forgot to react.

The second time, I muttered a response, too late.

The third and fourth times, I responded scathingly.

And the fifth time… Boy, by the fifth time… that little old lady is probably still regretting she opened her mouth.

I won’t bore you with a full account of the trials a young mother must face on a daily basis, so here are just a couple of examples:

- I’m chatting to another mum at the pool, one eye on BB who is playing nearby, when a random mother strides over and, hovering over me in all her bikini-clad glory, informs me: “Just thought you might like to know, your child is over there” (“over there” sounds like she means in another town, rather than fifteen metres away) “Be careful: you chat away, you chat away… and in the end, the kid gets lost!”

- Two oldish ladies stop to admire LB in his pram. At first I smile, basking (as one does), in the reflected glory of my cute offspring. Then, out of the blue, one of them tuts and says “Are you sure he isn’t a bit cold though?” The other one jumps in with “Oh yes, oh dear, he must be cold dressed like that!”

You will be pleased to know that this is the fifth incident. I am prepared.

“No, he’s not cold, he’s fine!” I snap. “He told me so,” I add, just for good measure.

It has to be said, people here tend to wrap their babies up like Eskimos, even in a heatwave.

What is it with all this interfering?? Do I not look like a competent mother? I wouldn’t dream of commenting on another mother’s choices, unless say, her kid was in the process of drowning or something (in which case, I would save the kid, not go and tell the mother that she was neglectful…).

Honestly, it really is hard being a young, serene mum these days.

After all these emotional mini-dramas, I feel I deserve a new dress or something…