How to Survive a (Grand)Mommy Driveby

You must be really lucky because you've avoided most of the snide comments that other women dish out to moms on the street. (Or else you just look very mean and they're afraid of you. Grrrr.) But today you got totally sideswiped!

You were standing outside of the library with your kiddo waiting for the building to open. There was another woman there who looked like a youngish grandma with her two grandchildren. It WAS kind of cold this morning. The weather has been bouncing all over the place, and you'd dressed your son in a t-shirt and shorts, not realizing that it was in the mid 60s instead of the mid 70s. This grandma had her kids bundled up in jackets with hoods and long pants.

As you're standing there trying to keep your kid amused she turns to you and says, "Don't you think he's cold?"

At first you were totally oblivious. "Yeah. He probably is," you said. "It wasn't this cold yesterday."

"But it was cold THIS morning," she said and man, you could just hear that reproach creeping into her voice. She might as well have said, "What a bad mommy you are! Why didn't you go out and test the weather before dressing your precious child!"

The nice thing is that instead of feeling shamed or like you really WERE a bad mom, you wanted to have a laugh in this woman's face. What was she planning to accomplish by trying to shame another woman? Did she think that you magically had warmer clothes in your pocket that you could automatically swish onto your kid? Maybe she just gets her jollies by being rude to people at libraries.

When your kid was very very little it was so easy to be worried that you truly were a bad mom and that every bad decision you made was going to ruin him. Now you have perspective. What was the worst thing that was going to happen to your kid in shorts when it was 65 degrees out. That he would shiver for five minutes?

When the kid next to your son had a temper tantrum at the puzzle table, you just tried to smile at his mom and sympathize. A little empathy goes a long way.

Try this at home:
What's been your best comeback?