I took Joshua to the parent/infant group today in Kerrisdale.  The topic was CPR and first aid, and the room was packed with moms and babies today.  When we arrived, I found an empty seat and I set Joshua in his stroller facing me so I can feed him his meal of rice cereal and broccoli soup.  To keep him occupied, I handed him a teether and a little container of cheerios to play with while I fed him.

While I was spoon feeding him his meal, Joshua would throw the teether over his shoulder.  Then he would rattle the container of cheerios and toss that over his shoulder too.  I would pick them up, hand them back to him.  He would then repeat throwing them over his shoulder, and I would pick them up again and hand them back to him.

This went on for 10 or 12 minutes, and I had picked up the teether and cheerio container off the floor to give them back to him at least 20 times.  I did all this without feeling the least bit annoyed (yay me!).  I’m sure I annoyed the ladies sitting close to me as I repeatedly got up from my seat and stepped over their diaper bags to retrieve my son’s things, but that I figured they will have to deal with it.

It dawned on me that before I had Joshua, if I see someone doing this for their child, I would have been very annoyed.  I mean, now I know that if I didn’t bring the teether and container back to Joshua, he would have become bored and he likely won’t eat his meal.  But before I had Joshua, I would have thought that the stupid kid is just going to throw the container again, so why won’t the stupid parent just wait till the meal is over to retrieve the stupid container?  The same goes for screaming babies on a flight.  Why can’t the parents just tell those unreasonable babies to shut up?  And those kids having a temper tantrum in the isles at Superstore?  Sure the parents should teach their kids some discipline!

In the brief 7 1/2 months time I’ve been a parent, I have learned to stop being judgemental of someone else’s parenting.  I have no idea the kind of day the parent has had, or the kind of preference the kid has.  Who am I to judge what should or should not have been done?