I wrote a piece called the comparison mum a while ago and still to this day I hear it happening more and more.
Friday I go to a toddler group. A group filled with love, cake and my daughter’s favourite thing…. Biscuits.
Mums and dads bring their children to this group. Apart from that similarity we are all different people just doing the same job the best we can. Raising tiny humans.
I caught a very good friend of mine saying the well known phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child”. It does and I didn’t realise this until recently. I would, at a snap of a finger, look after my friends children if they have to go somewhere or are ill. No judgement or hesitation. Yet I understand the parent side of it is “why do I have to have help from others, I can cope”.
There is so much pressure on us to be the perfect parent, those that do no wrong. I personally blame social media and people that have too much time on their hands. Do they realise the damage they do? By putting pressure on to be the wonder woman mum cracks start to appear that could create lasting damage.
Being a parent doesn’t mean you know it all. You didn’t learn from a text book or pass a degree to be an expert. So quite frankly keep your opinions to yourself. Help instead of judge.
Today I looked around at our group. One mum was running after another person’s child as they made an escape out of a door, another parent was trying to spilt up two toddlers fighting over a toy, that even her own children was not involved in, another was making a drink for another persons child whilst a couple of mum’s were persuading another mum to go to the doctors as she was poorly whilst the child stayed with us even if toddler group had finished so she could feel better.
That is a village.
Kindness and love to others isn’t judgement. It’s a village.
Frances Cross Writes 