“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”

I’ve read so many stories this week. So many in fact I have sat at the keyboard so many times not knowing how to write about any of them.

If you’ve missed #dummygate, if you haven’t seen a baby being breastfed on TV, if you didn’t hear why that man got shown the door after breastfeeding comments, perhaps you’ve taken a social media holiday.

The media are running a marathon with them. I think it’s all the bitchy press pieces I find pretty sad.

I can’t help but notice some of the comments and discussions that follow from all over the place.

What I love is the comment that I see always “stop judging”, “don’t judge”, people don’t have any right to “judge”. But with a right to or not – people judge. Perhaps it’s human nature for us to look at something and decide if we like it or not, if we’d do it or not, and how it makes us feel.

That judgement part can happen without harm. It’s the harm that’s hurtful.

As a new parent, I don’t think I would have worried and do worry so much about being judged if I didn’t fear anything bad coming from it. That worry is a hard weight to carry as a newbie in the mum club.

There was a really lovely story not so long ago about a mum who was on a train with a little boy. A man left her an anonymous note telling her how well-mannered her son was and I think from memory left her £5.00. The lady took to social media to track down the stranger because she was so happy and grateful.

Think of the opposite – you receive an anonymous note telling you your son is just about the rudest child they’ve ever had the misfortune to share a train carriage with. Perhaps your son is ill, teething, who knows sometimes why children feel like a good cry. They are just little. Would you take to social media exposing the stranger as just about the worst person ever?

This is the reality. In both cases there’s a stranger’s judgement and effect. In one scenario, you’re delighted, in the other devastated.

People judge. And I think that’s got to be an accepted way of life. That’s also ok when it doesn’t harm or hurt you.

I don’t care what people think. I do care what they do with those thoughts.

What’s my point…I should get to it.

It’s the expression of that judgement that can really sting, or actually really make your day.

I’m reminded of this always in living life with my little, and surrounded by others with littles just as precious as mine

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”

Don’t concern yourself with the view of people who don’t care what people think. Completely blanket yourself with people who think of you, how you feel and give you the good stuff to keep you going in the crazy maze that is living life with lovely little, little folk.