I was in Winco today buying some groceries and as I was going through the isle’s I was looking for Emma’s new diet. The high fat diet. She is 13 months and weighs 16 lbs. Yeah. So anyways, it was the weirdest thing. Because Travis and I always focused on feeding her healthy organic food. Heck I even made my own baby food just to be sure I knew what she was eating! She still hasn’t tasted juice- Trav doesn’t like the sugar content. 🙂
Anyways, as I was checking out I was noticing the 4 boxes of Mac-n-Cheese, High fat chocolate pudding, buttery Croissants, avocado’s (which I like too) and for a moment I was embarrassed. I was afraid of what other mothers might think of my mothering skills if they saw what I was feeding my little developing girl. But of course nobody was looking at me or the food I was buying. But I was struck with how I might judge others around me without any of their story. They didn’t know my story, about Emma needing to gain weight.
Maybe there is a mom who won’t discipline her children (much to other mother’s frustration) because she grew up in a physical/verbal abusive family and vowed never to do that to her children. That mom is doing the best she can with her kids.
There are too many variables and unknowns to make ANY judgements on anyone. That bum you always see standing on the corner on your way to work? He had a respectable job 2 years ago. He’s not a creep and he has no idea what to do to support his family. (Maybe that’s why he doesn’t look so dirty) There are so many reasons why people do certain things. Like a mom who buys Mac-n-cheese and the fattiest kind of chocolate pudding to fatten her kid up so her body can grow and barely maintain the 1%.
Today was a good reminder for me. People do the best they can with what they have- or at least most do. I really hope Emma bulks up and passes the 20lb mark. She’s getting WAY too long for the car seat she’s in.