An open letter to a well intentioned fellow mommy.

You know who you are. Remember last Sunday? At Main Plaza? Downtown San Antonio, Texas? YOU REMEMBER. Your the kind and generous soul who took a break from your busy day to walk away from YOUR children, across a park and up to OUR table in order to give me a stern talking to about the obesity epidemic in America, the health of children and YOUR opinion on the Happy Meal that MY child was blissfully enjoying.

MAYBE, just maybe, I was a bit harsh when I told you to blow me…..

Lets start over. Let me tell you a bit about my child. Each week, as in EVERY SINGLE WEEK we go through a 5 pound bag of carrots, 14 bananas, 20 oranges, 4 heads of lettuce, 3 pounds of spinach, 10 tomatoes and 4 cucumbers. A typical breakfast for my child is 1 cut up banana, 1 cut up orange, 1 cut up apple, a slice of sprouted grain bread with almond butter and some fresh juiced lettuce, spinach, carrots, orange and apple. Snack is vegetables, lunch is vegetables and nuts, maybe a sandwich (again made from sprouted grain bread). Dinner is vegetables with baked chicken or baked fish. We don’t have ANY processed foods in our fridge or pantry at the moment. I shop the exterior of the supermarket every single time I visit.

This may sound extreme even to you Mrs. I’m Super Concerned About Kids And Obesity, but my son has some health conditions and I agonize over his every meal in an attempt to get him as many nutrients and calories as possible without giving him too much food that will stress his various organs.

So when you saw us in the park and he was enjoying that Happy Meal. That was a treat. A special treat on a special day. And guess what! You didn’t teach me anything. You didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know about kids and nutrition and whats good food versus whats crap food. All you did was make me doubt myself as a mother for a split second and change the tone (for a split second) of what had been a beautiful morning.

I guess what I’m saying is – we are all doing our best every single day. You don’t know what is driving the decisions that I make about how I parent my child just like I don’t know what drives your decisions. So how about this. How about I parent my child and make all the important decisions and you do the same for your family. I won’t second guess you or presume that I know more than you do and you do the same for me. How’s that sound? Can we as fellow mothers just support each other?

Does that make sense? Can you get on board with that?

Fellow mommies – have you experienced a similar situation? When a stranger, friend or family member judged your parenting choices and made you feel small and wrong. Even when you knew better? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

Category: Embracing the chaos, Epilepsy, Lovin Life