"my biggest pet peeve is..."

. . . people giving their parenting opinions a little too freely,

and meanly.

Just to be clear, 

I do know that this is par for the course

when you become a new parent.

But it can be so frustrating in those early days 

to be told by a random lady in the supermarket, 

how her daughter managed to get her baby to sleep in the buggy 

by using a specific brand of dummy.

Or when complete strangers diagnose your baby with colic 

just by the sound of their cry.

I think the worst example of this is when people actually WANT to hear

that you are struggling and suffering with a miserable baby.

I remember joking early on that I've never known so many people 

to be interested in how much sleep I'm getting, 

or not getting, 

until I had a baby.

People working behind the tills in Boots,

people doing their shopping in the Sainsburys,

my husband's work colleagues;
my sleeping habits and those of my baby
were suddenly of great interest to all these people.

I was incredibly lucky to have a baby who slept his first full night at seven weeks

and was sleeping through consistently by eight weeks.

So when asked how I was sleeping,

I would proudly, but I'd like to think not smuggly, say

"Actually he's really good at nights

and he sleeps all the way through."

And that's when it would happen . . .

. . .that look would flash up across their faces. . .

. . .they would looked disappointed.

The look would quickly vanish and they would say in a nasty way,

"Well, it won't last.

Just you wait until he's teething."

Why could no body be happy for me?

Why did they want me to suffer?

Why couldn't they let me enjoy my good fortune?

Being a new mummy is hard enough as it is.

You're tired.

You're more than likely still in pain from childbirth.

Just being out of the house seems like quite an achievement at first.

And then people like to knock you a bit while you're down.

I dreaded teething,

because so many people had told me how it would turn my happy, sleeping baby

into a miserable, monster with insomnia.

Fortunately I got lucky on the teething front

as well as the sleeping front,

and so far all his teeth have come through without so much as a whimper.

Now the strangers get that same disappointed look

when I share this fact.

Before they gleefully tell me,

"You wait until his molars are cutting. . ."

Luckily I now have the confidence to smile and completely ignore them.

And don't even get me started on

random people telling me I should really be giving my exclusively breastfed baby

some formula "to top him up"

and give him some more vitamins and minerals.

You what?

To see the other responses 

to this weeks BritMums Blog Prompt of the Week
click below.