Unsolicited Parenting Advice

When people found out I was pregnant, all sorts of advice started pouring in. It didn't matter if I was working, shopping, or just talking to my mama on the phone. Everybody had something to say about my pregnancy.

Once I gave birth to my little princess, the advice increased by like 1000%. For some odd reason people always got something to say about how you raise your baby. I know people are just trying to be helpful, but for a new mother experiencing baby blues or even post partum depression, sometimes other people should keep their judgmental opinions to themselves.

Whenever someone gives me their 2 cents, I usually just suck it up, listen, and change the subject. Afterwards I complain to my dear hubby about how everyone gets on my nerves. A couple times I cried lol.

Now that I'm 11 weeks into parenthood, I feel like I've become that person wanting to give unsolicited parenting advice. I have this internal battle within myself all the time when lurking on The Bump or even looking over my facebook friends' posts. Do I give them my 2 cents? Do I keep my mouth shut?

I've decided to try hard to only give my opinion when someone is asking for it. When the person isn't asking for an opinion I'll just post it on my blog. It's the compromise I had to work out because I don't know how to bite my tongue sometimes and I don't want to offend anyone on a public forum.

So here are some of my parenting pet peeves/ unsolicited parenting advice:

• Why in the world would you put your infant in a front facing car seat? The law in NC (I can't speak for other states) is that a child should be rear-facing until they are 1 year old AND 20 lbs. Just because your child has outgrown the infant carrier, doesn't mean you should buy them a big kid seat. They make rear-facing convertibles for a reason. And if you wreck your child could get severely injured aka internal decapitation. Shoot your child could get severely injured when they're old enough to legally face forward, but you should at least follow the freaking law.
• Please don't place your sleeping infant in a crib, pack n play, bassinet, or other sleeping arrangement with a bunch of loose blankets, stuffed animals, pillows, plush decorations, etc. Do you not understand that babies can move? Even if the child can't roll over or crawl yet, a baby's arms and legs are very active. Swaddling may help, but what if they break out of the swaddle? Do you want your child to suffocate? I'm sorry, but having all that suff around your baby just looks like a death trap to me.
• What made you think leaving your infant in a diaper for 12 hours is ok? I know the box says "up to 12 hours," but would you want to wallow in your piss for 12 hours? I can understand if your child actually sleeps 12 straight hours and you don't want to wake a sleeping baby, but if the child wakes up to eat why can't you get off your lazy butt and change his or her diaper? Shoot, when elderly people are left in their diapers for half a day, that's grounds for elder abuse. Why wouldn't it be the same for a baby? Aren't you scared that your child may develop a diaper rash that could have been prevented if you weren't so lazy? And what about the chemicals that are present in diapers? Sometimes that gel stuff in disposables come out when the diaper is soaked, and no one really knows if that stuff is safe. Do you want that crap on your baby? My bad, you probably don't care because if you'll leave your child in pee for 12 hours, you can't give a flying flip if something else gets on them for a few minutes.

Whew, that was cathartic!! lol