Just how bad can parents get?

sooty&sweep

Hi

My son was a January baby and when I took him out for a walk in his pram / pushchair I'd put a hat on him and as I walked with him he'd pull the hat off, so I'd stop to put it back on and set off again and he'd pull it off again and we kept repeating this until I accepted he didn't want to wear a hat !

Like wise with socks, his view was they weren't for his feet they were to be chewed and I never bothered with bootees because they didn't stay on either.

Some people may have looked and thought my child wasn't appropriately dressed but I'd tried and he had made a definate decision that he didn't want to wear them.

Apparently my mum took my children down to the beach yesterday with my daughter wearing an old pair of my sons trainers that are too big for her. She has her own trainers, crocs, sandles etc but for some reason decided she prefered her brothers too big trainers. Again if anyone noticed they must have thought she didn't have any shoes of her own.

Children can be very stubborn sometimes !!!

Jen

*Louise*

JBD wrote: »

OP are you serious? Allowing rain to fall on a baby's head [in August so hardly cold] isn't exactly cruelty, or any where near as bad as parents can get. Get a grip.

FBaby wrote: »

How horrible to make such quick judgment... Maybe that girl spent the night at her mum unexpectedly, and as it was so nice yesterday, she didn't have warm clothes and rain cover. Maybe she woke up this morning and her baby had a fever. Called the doctor who told her she could see her baby in 10 minutes.... she was running in the rain for her appointment with baby, hoping that she is ok....

Pathetic to jump to conclusion knowing nothing of the circumstances...

I think the OP is more referring to the fact that the MUM was wrapped up and covered when the baby wasn't. If both were uncovered the conclusion they got caught out in the rain could be drawn but it doesn't seem to be the case.

It's all very well rushing out for an emergency, but if I only had the time to make sure one person was covered up, it would be that baby, not me. Most parents would.

*Louise*

At the other end of the spectrum...on really hot days I often see a number of babies or toddlers in buggies with no parasol or headcover and squinting in the sun while the person pushing them has sunglasses or a hat on

pigpen

Parents can get so bad they deliberately maim, injure or kill their children.. I think a bit of rain is the least of those children worries!

FBaby

If the baby had a fever, then she was an excellent mum for not overdressing the baby... maybe she did what NHS.direct recommended her to do. The bottom line is no one knows the circumstances and therefore shouldn't be making any assumption on the parenting skills of this woman.

SueC_2

I saw a woman pushing a buggy, coming out of the chip shop. She pulled a sausage out of her bag of chips and handed it to the very young toddler in the buggy.

Toddler pulls hand away and starts crying, presumably as the recently deep fried sausage is too hot for him to hold (no surprises there then). Woman shoves sausage in toddler's mouth instead. :eek:

Sally_A

Well put me down as a crap parent - my faux pas:-

1) Daughter about a week old, was in a carry car seat contraption - left her in the dry cleaners, got half way along the street before remembering (I was anaemic after the birth, so had woozy moments).

2) Health visitor came, daughter asleep on the settee, legs akimbo, with the dog snuggled up resting her nose (the dogs) on the babies nappy. Health visitor dumbfounded, asked it I trusted the dog - yep totally. About 2 years later, the Dog snapped and growled at my daughter, daughter ran in telling tales, I watched through the crack in the door and saw her tormenting the dog mercilessly - daughter got a telling off, dog got fuss.

3) A very inquisitive child, who always wanted to see what was going on, she had a mini picnic chair that she dragged everywhere with her to stand on, I taught her how to open the front door, and to know which neighbours to go to if there was ever an emergency - aged just 2, she had managed to dress herself, put wellies on the wrong feet, but jumper and anaorak on (bit of common sense there), get out the front door, and was playing in the snow before we'd even woken up.

4) forgot to secure the baby seat in the car properly, braked, she went forward and had a lovely bruise on her forehead where she hit the dashboard.

5) From 18 months, she came to my netball matches, knew to sit and watch until quarter time, was very well behaved, from the age of 6 she used to practice shooting whilst we were all doing our circuits - became a U16 county player a year early.

6) Stair guards. What are they, after learning to walk she went up the stairs on hands and knees, and came down on shuffle bottom mode - I seem to recall she fell the last 3 steps once.

So yes, I'm probably deemed to be a crap parent, but now have a lovely well adjusted 20 year old, that respects animals, has a brilliant sense of humour, is confident, successful and popular (must have been the bash on the head ).

lolseh

One day when the weather was really bad here with sun I couldn't believe the amount of babies without a hat or anything on!!

ellay864

My 2 boys spent more time pulling off socks and hats than I could remember, and dont even get me started on coats. Even now at 16 and 19 they rarely wear coats - DS1 only wore one regularly when he was doing a paper round in winter. What I think is worse is kids who are totally over-dressed - vests, t-shirts, jumpers and blanket over them in summer, little red faces and looking so uncomfortable. I was always told to dress them in no more than one layer more than you'd wear yourself but some mothers seem to think they must be totally swaddled in all weathers

patchwork_cat

To be fair about the bare feet most babies are forever taking their socks etc. off. One thing that concerns me more is the people who wrap a baby up in this weather, I feel so sorry for the baby in a snow suit in September! My DS was a very hot little thing and in the summer he would be happiest in very little clothing from a quite small baby.