Yes, my son is almost 2

Photo 10
Originally uploaded by kelly's World2007

Most people who know us, know our little Peter's piercing scream. He's very spirited and when he wants to let us know he's unhappy, scared, etc, he resorts to his scream.

Now, if I walked into a store and heard his sort of scream coming from another child, I would probably look too. It's the sort of thing that gets your attention! I don't want to worry any of our friend; don't feel like you need to walk on egg shells in regards to your reaction when Peter screams. It bothers me too! However, I'm a bit tired of the stares, the people that look at us like, " why can't you control your child."

Here's another good one, we were at the park the other day with the kids. Peter was going down a little toddler slide. He went down a bit too quickly; there was another child about his age who was still sitting at the bottom. I was just a few feet away, but I went over quickly to make sure Peter wasn't going to slide right into the other little boy. To my shock and surprise, the other mother looked at me in disgust, and said, "Oh nice, your son just spit on my son". I couldn't believe those words were coming out of her mouth. First of all, I've never known a 23 month old to be able to "huck one" at another child. That's not a skill a 23 month old generally has. What he was actually doing, is what many toddlers do. When he's excited, he often does that thing where he sticks out his tongue and makes a cute sound. Yes, some saliva does fly out. Anyhow, I looked over and saw that this ignorant lady also brought the family husky to the park. I'm sure her child's never gotten any germs from the family pet. Anyhow, the only thing I could muster up at the moment was, "you're kidding, he's not even 2". (Of course I thought of a whole bunch of things later :)

Interestingly, a few moments later, the same lady's toddler (not sure if "lady" would be the right name for her) was having a melt down. She became quite upset with him. I was very tempted to go up to her and say, "so, you can't control your child?"

What ever happened to having empathy for those with little ones? As most people know, it's a hard job at the best of times. I'm not perfect, but I'm proud of the way Paul and I have been raising the kids. If you ask them, I bet they'd tell you they're pretty happy too!

I don't want to go through the kids different stages thinking, I can't wait until they grow, I can't wait until this is all done. It's all part and parcel of them growing up and learning. So, for now, I guess I'll just have to ignore the ignorant stares. If anyone can think up any clever things to say to an ignorant onlooker, please let me know.