I am peeved.

Mrs.LB705

Seriously, we are having a stressful few weeks among friends/family (5 deaths, one move to hospice care, and one upcoming open-heart surgery), plus trying to coordinate family in and out of town visiting the sick ones/going to wakes and funerals (I'm the local one, so I get the houseguests, which I truly don't mind, but this is getting a little insane).  I am about ready to curl up into a little ball and suck my thumb, I think.

That's where I am coming from today, so take this with a grain of salt, because I just got into it with someone BUT . . . I am soooooo tired of being judged!  Yep, I have one kid.  That's my choice, deal with it.  Nope, I am not all frazzled and burnt out like you are.  That's part of why I chose to have just one.  Doesn't make you a better person OR mother than me.  Truth be told, I am not all that impressed with your parenting skills in general--wasn't when you had just one, and CERTAINLY am not now that you have two.  But it's not my place to say so, and so I will continue to keep it to myself (ya know, except for posting about it on a public message board . . .).

We all do the best we can do in our own situations for our own specific families.  Parenting is NOT one-size-fits-all.  When the heck will people get that and just leave each other alone???

MelandJeff

Amen sistah

npeacock

MelandJeff:

Amen sistah

crazynervous

wait, you are only going to have one kid? TSK,TSk...

just kidding sorry you are having a bad day. 

4Speedy

There was a post a few days ago along the lines of, "Now that you have more than one, do you judge parents who whine about how hard parenting is when they only have one?"  I was going to reply but I saw it so far after the fact, I didn't bother.  So here's my 2-cent if anyone cares.

I have NO idea how anyone can judge what goes on in someone else's house.  One person's highstrung, high maintenance child may be worth a dozen of someone else's laidback kids.  Not to mention, even within a single household, the "ease" of parenting changes continuously.  I've been the parent of more than one for just 9 months now.  There have been phases where it's been really tough and phases where it's been pretty easy.  My kids are three years apart and that has something to do with it.  Now that they are almost 4 and almost 1, they can keep each other somewhat entertained so we are in one of the easier phases.  But I fully expect it will get hard again (and then easy and then hard, etc.)  I would expect it is the same in single child households.  And I would expect it would be very different in a household where the kids are 18 months apart as opposed to 3 years.  And it would be different in households where the kids are school aged, as opposed to younger kids.  So really, how the hell can anyone say who has it tougher, since parenthood is a constantly evolving beast?

GrowingFamily

Ahh, this explains the car seat post anger.  Sorry you're having a bad day:( I hope things get better for you (and your family) soon.  IMO, how many kids you have is NO ONE'S business but yours.  We get just the opposite- rude comments on our large family.  As if it's anyone's business?!  Our kids are all well-clothed, well-loved, well-fed, very well-behaved, are all sent to good parochial schools and live in a nice house. I am not frazzled nor am I worn out & I love having a big family, but these days having 4 kids (or more) is NOT the norm.  Some people we know would fall over if they knew we are considering a 5th child, lol!

Printergirl

Before I had DS SIL would always make comments to me 'well, that's because you don't have kids'.

Now it's 'wait till he's older, you'll understand'

The kicker was after traveling 4 out of 5 weekends for family functions I wrote on facebook we were taking a break from traveling as DS had a screaming fit the last hour of the drive. SIL commented 'And to think people with young kids have been visiting you for YEARS'. (they visit MAYBE once a year). My friends all emailed me with a WTF? after that.

I have realized that no matter what stage of parenting we are in it will never compare to her so my typical thought is la-ti-freaken-da and then I play nice.

emilykristene2006

I'm sorry you're having to go through so many deaths. Our family went through 6 in a year and a half and they were all close members of our family.

Don't worry about the ignorant comments. Maybe they're jealous that you only have one child to wrangle? I know I am! DH and I have joked that we should've stopped at one. I love DS with all my heart, but he is tough!