This is really rather adorable – it is also why I mostly hate playgroups.
I think these kinds of conversations with other mothers, in part, reflect the limits of small talk (and you need to make a lot of small talk in parenthood), and in part, also come about from misguided attempts to genuinely share information (as with any job, colleagues like to learn from one another and show-off hard-won expertise), but undeniably a lot of it is the result of the inferiority complex that is motherhood.
(Thank you to Tamara for the link).
LOVE IT!
I haven’t laughed so much in a while. Partly at myself…there are parts of me in blonde mum, but mostly at the crazy mummy discourse.
“Holy shit. Don’t you understand how disease works?”
Yeaaaaaah. Parts of it were humerous, and I suspect that all of it would be if I weren’t so wrapped up in advocating some of these issues (insert cries of “you’re too sensitive!” here).
The snarky SAHM one, however, is a little rage inducing.
Cassandra, I know, this vid picked sides… I am a mix of both mothers but narrow-mindedness and elitism annoy me and given the blonde mum was the one (mostly) guilty of that in this instance I chose the other mum to empathise with.
I had one of these moments this afternoon when a woman from school was chatting to me and mentioned her kids are not vaccinated. I didn’t say “Holy shit”, but I definitely thought it! I like this woman, but I’m pretty intolerant of those who don’t vaccinate without real cause.
I share a lot of parenting tips, I definitely enjoy that part of the job, and like hearing them from other people. Occasionally I’m confronted with just how much I do that – like a guy who told me he’d really appreciated the advice I’d given him when his girls were tiny. I didn’t even remember doing so. I tremble at the thought of how many people did not appreciate my advice. 🙂
Ariane I can’t imagine you being anything other than lovely.
Ariane, that’s a hard one too. I find it hard not to say something “Holy Shit”-ish when people volunteer the information that they are against vaccination. (I assume this was the case with the woman in your story, not some medical reason.) A lovely guy at our work came out with the info that his kids weren’t vaccinated, and I overheard him discussing his woo-theories with a mother at work. Aaargh. I wasn’t sure what to do and ended up not saying anything. Fail.
Helen, I’m pretty sure there are woo/conspiracy theories behind it. She said that her eldest “has a very strong immune system”. She also suggested my current chicken pox infection was caused by vaccinating kids against chicken pox.
All I managed in response was that I was glad my son had had both a mild dose of chicken pox, and a mild dose of measles (the latter from the vaccination). I had measles 3 times as a kid, and was delirious for 3 days with the last one. Another one caused a significant squint that needed surgical correction. I made it clear that I considered the vaccination option clearly better, however I didn’t mention that little bub who died of whooping cough recently, and I felt a bit faily about that too.