Unsolicited advice
28/07/2011
This is why I hate shows like ‘Super nanny’ – it gives people the impression that wrangling 2-year-olds is easy if only you set ‘clear boundaries’ and ‘take charge’. The 2-year-olds in question are an abstract notion; the judgers probably haven’t had to deal with them in a long time and don’t remember how relentlessly goblin-like they are. Yesterday, my two-year-old threw tantrums all the way home, then, when I put her down for a nap, she opened up her jar of zinc cream and smeared it all over the floor and furniture and through her hair. She also emptied all the clothes out of her drawers. She was quiet doing so – it was only when I went to check on her that I found her sleeping on the floor, surrounded by carnage.
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LET ME BE FRANK 
Oh wow, what a super-helpful woman, I mean total cow. Well done for being restrained in your response! I get a lot of crap from people when we are out because Magnus looks ‘normal’ then does erratic things – so people think he is naughty and I am a shit mother. For a while he had a thing about slapping his hands onto big bottoms – he just liked the way it sounded, I think – you can imagine how that went down in public….I never tell people about him though, because I believe that people should learn to be more tolerant and patient around kids generally. (Sorry, raving now….you touched a nerve.) Great comic, as always. xxxx H
Thanks, Helen! And I like the idea of slapping big bottoms – that would make a satisfying sound and feeling. I do have a thing against intolerant members of the public. I hate people disapproving especially when they don’t know the full story!
Great blog. People are so impatient. They must think the world is going to end in five minutes, before they have a chance to check their twitter page!
This is great. ‘my legs stopped working’ is what my 2 y/o says.
I hope that silly woman sees your comic.
That would be great, right? I am always surprised who sees and doesn’t see my blog!
Argh, those well-meaning people are EVERYWHERE. I got told off by one in the post office the other day (abstract two-year-old with snot everywhere) and wanted to slap her (horrible woman, not snotty two-year-old). If you ever think of an appropriate putdown, let me know!
P.S The big bottom slapping thing is hilarious. I’m not going to be able to stop the urge to do the same thing when I see one now…
But did you post the blog to the car woman so she sees how she is perceived. Maybe she is your greatest fan
I’ll never forget an older woman who passed me and my pre-school daughter walking SLOWLY along the pavement looking at this and that and said: ‘it’s lovely to see a mother who isn’t rushing.’ And I — a-not-always-unrushing-mother — remember thinking: surely there are heaps of mothers who do this? I’ve since watched out for them… and there aren’t as many as you’d think. For a start too many are in cars. And what about the response from a woman 80+ to my son’s heavy metal band practising in our garage? (We’d had some complaints including calls to the noise control people – so we’d written to all our neighbours explaining the practice would be only for a limited time on certain afternoons.) The woman of 80+ wrote to us to say that hearing the music made her dance past our garage. Yay for that.
Oh, lordy, memories of being in the midst of checking out at some store, and my three-year-old lying down at my feet in the midst of this, wailing. Trying to deal with her and the checkout process, plus the baby and the five-year-old, I actually had room in my consciousness to realize an elderly lady was glaring at me. “It’s mothers like you who are ruining this country!” she snarled at me. I was so astonished, I just stared at her for a moment, and then went back to my more-important business at hand.
That three-year-old just turned 28, and just like the other two, she is doing fine. So I haven’t contributed to the ruin of this country, but rather, three lovely young women.
Amen!!! It would be really interesting to see an unedited version of Super Nanny to see how much trouble can happen when the cameras aren’t rolling.
As for other people’s advice, it never ceases to amaze me when a couple in their 30s are going to be parents for the first time and when they tell people, the first thing the new parents are told is, “Ohhh…thigns are going to change now!!!”…..well DUH!!!! Ya think??? I always found it degrading when people woudl say that as if they were letting you know the BLOODY OBVIOUS and you wouldn’t think things woudl change. It’s almost as if they think the parents would think they could still go out and party every weekend and jsut leave the new baby at home. The next time someone says that to a new parents, I reckon they should be slapped into next week.
Jsut my opinion anyway
regards,