Hey you- with the brat of a child

Hey you- Yes you the one with the brat of a child. Can you get her under control? Stop the whining? We are trying to eat here! And have you ever read a parenting book? Don't you know you aren't suppose to praise your child for having what is considered "normal" behavior?! She is seriously whining/screaming between every bite of food and the one time she nicely said "more mama" -and she didn't even say please- I heard you praise her to high heaven! Speaking of food- ummm kids are suppose to feed themselves- you baby her by feeding her with a fork.
*EYE ROLL* Your child is a brat and you don't have any parenting skills. *Laugh*- and you thought you could handle another one!?

Yes- this is the dialog Dan and I imagine our fellow diners are thinking whenever we go out to eat. Or really anywhere. Emmaus is often a bit much when we are out and about. And I don't mean the "oh, she's two" much. I mean the -"those are the worst parents ever and their kid is a disaster of a brat" much.
I remember thinking that before when I have been out (pre-children of course). Thinking- I will NEVER let my child act like that.
And guess what- she does. Tonight we had a pretty good dining experience.
Emmaus clearly was hungry so our sweet waiter put her food in first. She actually liked her food. She threw very little on the floor intentionally. Yet- her lack of words often leads to a protest between bites when whoever is feeding her dares to sneak a bite of their own food and doesn't get her next bite soon enough.
Oh- and we feed her. She is slowly learning to feed herself- but so far it often includes food catapulting off her fork at great speed and impressive distance- so to avoid our fellow diners wearing her dinner we feed her.

If Emmaus had several other diagnosis that physically made it known she has some delays I think I would expect those we experience daily, who know nothing about us, to have a bit more grace for her. But to the world around us she looks normal. She currently has no physical signs (or not obvious ones) that she is different than most two year olds- something I both love and hate about TS...

And while people have rarely been rude about her behavior, delays, or how they perceive our parenting- I know their thoughts often "go there". Because I was once guilty of that.

So I guess what all these words are leading to- is think twice before you think poorly of people. We have no idea what is going on with others. We have no clue what the reality of their daily lives looks like.

Everyone is dealing with something. Whether it is a kid with a chronic disease, a toddler that hasn't napped for a week, a sudden death, a lay off... Everyone has crap.
So lets be kind to those around us- and try our best to think kindly of others.

Photobucket

Comments

Popular Posts