Can't We All Just Get Along?

I'd heard of this mommy shaming stuff before I got all knocked up and what not and just sort of ignored it.  So what if other moms tell you that you're wrong for not breast feeding.  So what if you're judged for having so many kids or not enough kids or for letting your kid eat play dough.  I mean, who cares what other people think about you anyway, right?

Well, I'm here to tell you, it's easy to get caught up in.  I've found myself there several times and The Baby from Texas isn't even here yet.  A few examples.

The Baby from Texas at the first ultrasound.
Do these pictures creep anyone else out but me?  I get it's amazing and wonderful,
but come on, it's creepy too, right?

When the doctor finally told me that I was going to need medication to help control this morning sickness I was having, I was relieved.  And then, all sorts of people started chiming in on how bad that was and how I should use natural remedies only and how I should just suck it up and what not.  Trust me, had I been able to get around using drugs, I would have.  But me keeping nothing down and dying of dehydration was not going to be very good for the baby.

At a conference, I met a girl who was a month less pregnant than me who had the cutest little baby bump everyone was commenting on.  I didn't look pregnant at all, and it made me insanely jealous.

One of my girlfriends mentioned that she was going to be making all of her baby's baby food homemade.  I honestly thought to myself, "You can do that?  I thought Gerber had some sort of patent on this stuff?"

Natural birth?  Co-sleeping?  Self soothing?  Pacifiers?  Baby swings?  Breast feeding?  Cloth diapers?  The list of topics that this applies to goes on and on.

It's easy to get judgmental of people who are doing things differently than you.  I think that we're somehow programmed to think there is always a right and a wrong and if we're doing it one way, every other way must be wrong.

And you know, that's total crap.  If my baby eats Gerber and my friend's baby eats homemade baby food, that won't make a hill of beans difference in the rest of their lives.  My bet is that the both turn out fine and (maybe with the exception of their teenage years) love their mothers.

I think in the end, it can pretty much be summed up this way.  Is she smoking crack?  Is what she is doing posing a danger to your own baby?  If the answers to both are no, then she doesn't need your judgment or comments.  How about just your support?