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Earlier this week I went to a very nice lunch and lecture at a local paper shop. The lady who runs the front desk cornered me on my way out of the building and began asking me questions about the baby, since I am obviously heavily pregnant right now. Questions are nothing new, I get them every single day at work from people I see in my building, so I have a nice little set of quick answers worked up to the common ones… when am I due, is it a boy or a girl, do I have a name picked out, is it my first child, am I excited or scared or both.
She asked me all those questions, which was fine. Then she showed me a photograph of her infant grandchildren and explained that they were born premature and spent several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). I expressed sympathy and asked if they were doing OK now.
That was a mistake; it opened the door for crazy story time.
She went on to explain that she herself had given birth to a premature infant in the 1960s, and back then there was no NICU, that SHE was the NICU for her baby, and that she knew a lot better how to care for babies than any doctor did today. Then she told me that doctors will tell you that babies don’t need water, that all they need is breastmilk, and isn’t that crazy? She gave her own baby corn syrup mixed with water and THAT was what gave him the energy he needed to grow up strong. It felt like she was insisting that I agree that feeding a baby high fructose corn syrup is the best thing for nutrition and energy. I was like… wow, that must have been a really difficult experience for you! Gotta go now!
I know this is only the beginning of the weird advice to come. I have mentioned before and I’ll say it again: My goal is to try to be nice to strangers who offer advice, thank them for it while quickly backing out of the conversation, and not let it upset me.
Oh man, it still irritates me when other parents insist they know best about YOUR child. My mother-in-law thought I was crazy for breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months of my son’s life. We didn’t introduce solids until he was that age, and she said she gave all her kids cereal at something like 2 weeks old. *sigh*
Forget sleep problems. Forget potty training (which we are doing right now). Forget separation anxiety, teething, and everything else! If I had to complain about one thing parenting-related, it wouldn’t be any of these more difficult milestones; it would be other people’s unwarranted parenting advice!
BAH!
You should have told her you plan on carrying as long as an elephant to avoid everything up to potty training.
Best parenting advise I ever read – smart babies sleep less. It’s very useful. While you walk the floor with your wailing infant, as tears of exhaustion trickle down your face, you can say “Not only are you my beautiful little baby, you must be a genius.”
I was there when this crazy lady was dispensing advice and she was very odd. She was in her 60’s, animated, and tons of creatively applied makeup. I wish I could have taken a photo to add to this story. She and her advice seemed out of this world.
I told her – “My mom put Dr. Pepper in my bottle.” just as a joke, but she probably thought it was a great idea. Eeeeeeek!
B