Let me preface this post by saying that I too have judged other parents......but it has been in the context of things I find morally sickening, such as smoking in front of your kids, dropping them off at a sitter's house when they are burning up with fever and should be home when the parent just wants to go back home & sleep in themselves, etc.

I don't think any of us are totally innocent of placing judgement on parents.....especially before we have had kids. Who hasn't seen a kid on the floor at Target screaming and kicking all around as if demonically possesed and said "that will NEVER happen to me..."? Ha! Easily said by a person not yet gifted with the joys of a toddler!

So......that brings me to why I am writing this.....this past weekend I overheard an acquaintance, who has a 6 month old baby (too young for tantrums!) make a comment about how some people don't deserve to be parents and that she had just seen one mom sit with a dumbfounded look on her face as her twins were having a fit, while another parent lost their temper and snapped at their own tantrumming child. When I heard this, I just about lost my lunch. Come on, now. How can this girl pass judgement on these parents without first walking a mile in their shoes? My son was an angel at 6 months of age. Now that he is two he is as prone to meltdowns as the next toddler......this girl has no idea what she is in for. I guarantee she will be eating her words in a little over a year.

Unless you see a mom blowing nicotine into her child's face, driving drunk with her kids in the car, or otherwise putting her child in danger, etc. please don't pass judgement on other parents and how their kids are behaving at the moment you see them or how they are responding to their kids. Parenting is unique to each family and saying that someone doesn't deserve to be a parent for such asinine reasons is really rather pathetic and is not teaching or setting a very good example of tolerance for your child........

I'll step off my soap box now.