OH No, you DIDN'T!

Over at www.care.com they are having a contest to see who has the best or worst "Oh NO you DIDN'T" story, I heard about it on twittermoms

Mine are not that good. But I have had a few times that I was shocked by what people have said to me in public about my children.
And I have a few that my own family has said; like my mom telling me how cruel I am because I wont let my 4 year old have a bra.

Or the day she threw a fit because I told my kids not to eat sticky candy or gum, then she let them have it anyway, and off came one of Rayley's caps. When I was told about it, she piped up "it was time for it to come off anyway, just superglue it back on".

And there is the typical "I was never that mean to you, I let you have all the soda's you wanted. You just dont know how to raise children."

But from Strangers:

When Brett and Matt were little, I used to put them in a harness. They were 15 months apart. and honestly, when you have 2 kids that are under 3, you need all the help you can get. And these are sold for kids. I even had many many people stop me and ASK me where to buy one.

So, there was the time I was in McDonalds and had a woman walk up to me, look at my well behaved children; they were about 3 and 2, both wearin their harness' and leashes and say "LADY, If you wanted pets you should have went to an animal shelter"

I just stuttered and asked her what she meant. She said she was refering to my children being on a leash like a dog.

I was a new mom, a young kid (about 26), living in a strange town (BR was doing fiber optics and we were moving around with the work), had NO outside help and a husband who worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, there was NEVER a second that I wasnt with my kids. And this was Austin, Texas. A city. I was a country girl. where we leave our doors unlocked, our kids play in the yard and we say "how-do" to strangers.

I was flabergasted.

But, I was able to tell her that they were SOLD for children, and it kept them from climbing on the counters and tearing stuff up, it keeps them out of the highway , and by MY side. I was carrying 4 drinks, 4 bags of food and my wallet. I couldnt have carried or held their hands if my life depended on it. - But her comment still shook me, and embarressed me.

and there was the time that I had Brett and Matt in the cart at walmart. They were about 4 and 5. They had been fighting ALL day. I was BIG pregnant with Rayley and just plumb wore out. I had told them time and again to quit arguing, had threatened to not have Matts birthday party, and various other things. But since we had been in town for HOURS, sitting at a Dr ofice, shopping for groceries, and running erronds, they were not listening. Well, I turned my back to put back a few things for Matts birthday party, and a woman told me "hey lady, your kids are fighting- you should do something about it"
I nicely told her I knew they were fighting, thats what boys do.
"well, I cant belive you'd bring another child into this world when you cant control the two you have"
so I told her, "luckily this ones a girl, and if you think you can keep two boys from fighting, have at it"

With that I returned the things I had pretended to put up to my buggy, told my kids that if they didnt settle down I was going to send them home with that woman and finished my shopping!

They were amazingly good the entire rest of the day, and kept telling me they loved me.

THere have also been the times recently when I was either pregnant with Bow (the year old) or just had him, and have ALL 4 kids in walmart, and someone will walk up and say "are all those YOURS?"
I like to tell them "nope, this is what happens when you are rude to a kid in public, the parent files charges and the judge gives you community service. They make you take kids you dont like to town with you"

I also have gotten a few comments about 'knowing what causes all them babies'. I usually just laugh, cause those dont hurt my feelings, or anger me.
I even joke that I have fiqured it out and there will be NO MORE! or tell them that I quit washing our underwear together.



Now, the worst thing that I think has ever happened was once... (and I never even told my husband this....) when Brett was JUST walking, I was in the front yard. We lived in the country, but in a neighborhood. We had like 5 acres and our neighbor had 20, another had 12. there were homes directly across the street. I could have chunked a rock and hit any of the 6 of them, but we had land.

We didnt have a front yard fence. All our fencing was in the back, where the animals were. But I wanted to work on my flowerbeds. It was coming up on spring, and it was just so pretty out. I had already been using the harness on him in town, to give him some freedom, and I decided to get out the old dog run thing that we had for when we first moved there and hadnt built a fence yet for our pot bellied pig and Bull Mastiff. It was a plastic covered cable, completly safe.

Our house was maybe 60 feet from a pretty busy farm to market road. So, I took Brett out, put the spike in the ground and tied his harness to the 20 foot run. Just close enough that he couldnt get INTO the flowerbed and eat a poisonus Azalla. or into the cactus garden and get stuck. I gave him some toys, and started weeding.

We did this for a while, and I realized that it was time to hang out clothes. So I took his lead and we went to the back to the clothes line. I tied him back there, put out the laundry and we came back up front.

I had JUST finish tying him back, and was running in a circle letting him chase me on his fat little legs. HE was squealing and I was laughing. I even would fall down a few times and let him 'catch' me. There was nothing for him to tangle up in. About that time a car drove by, and she hollered something out her window. I looked up, but didnt reconize the car, or the kid bouncing around in the back seat.

He started to play with a truck in the rocky gravel , so I went back to weeding and transplanting cuttings from my roses. Brett had gotten bored with his truck, so he was throwing a plastic baseball at me. I would throw it back and he would chase it.

Then all of a sudden, in screached this car, slamming on the brakes with a kid bouncing off the back seat. luckily Brett was no longer playing in the driveway with his truck. She proceeded to tell me that she was calling CPS on me because I was torturing my child, and how cruel I was, then turned around, told her kid to sit back down (she was picking herself up out of the floor board from the sudden stop) and went about telling me what an awful person I was.

I stood up, and started walking towards her and I forgot about the shovel in my hand. She decided at this point she had spoken her mind and proceeded to slam her car in reverse, and haul butt out of my driveway, the child bouncing and ricocheting all over the car.

I was LIVID. And for a second thought about jerking up my child, who was on the ground eating grass and playing in the dirt, burning the tie out and swearing I had been cleaning house all day when the cops came. Then I realized. I had done NOTHING wrong. I was keeping my child SAFE. playing with him outdoors and welcomed the police to inspect me.

I have done alot of things as a parent that might not be the 'norm' but always with my kids best intrests in mind. Could I have put him down for a nap and then came out and weeded my garden? yes. Could I have found a daycare to keep my child while I played outside on my own? yes. But instead I brought my kid out.

Its just probably a good thing she never saw the half of a 55 gallon drum I used to put the kids in when I was feeding the horses and goats.

Now, I know that there are worse ones out there. But this was kinda fun. So, please comment on my post. Cause if you dont, I dont even stand a chance at winning, thats the contest, you have to have the most blog comments!


Also, I have a code for 15% off a Care.com subscription just enter the code: TWMOMS