I cannot stand some people...

[Carrie]

Originally Posted by PornoDoggy

That being said, if your attitude toward proper child rearing techniques doesn't change once you have one of the little critters, you are a damned fool.

Pre-kid I called them "small, stupid humans". I hated them. They were loud, dirty, misbehaving annoyances. Always making a disturbance, always being a problem.

Now it's MUCH different. I'm about as pro-kid as you can get. I can tell the difference in a kid that's acting up on purpose and a kid that's just overstimulated with a single glance or a few seconds of hearing them. No matter where I am, a kid cries or yells "mom" and I'm turning around automatically to help, even if all of mine are right in front of me. I know what it's like to have been there, done that, and my sympathy for other parents extends much further.

15 years ago I used to be a glarer. Now I'm a sympathetic smiler, and someone who will stop and interact with the kid (distraction works wonders). Boy how things have changed since having my own.

There's a great mass email out there floating around about a mom who used to be childless and think parents were sooo stupid for things like having a kid with two mismatched socks, a tank top when it's snowing outside, and they're in the grocery store stuffing their face full of a chocolate bar; and now that she's had kids she realizes that those are the kid's favorite socks and she refuses to take them off, there was already a half-hour battle to get ready to leave when the kid suddenly appears wearing that tank top instead of the sweatshirt he had been wearing and it'll be another half-hour battle to get him to change back, and kids' appetites sometimes strike without warning and it's better to give them a candy bar now and let them eat dinner a little later than have them screaming and wailing the whole time you're in the store. Wish I had it handy, it's perfect for this thread.