As a parent, should you advise other parents?

Nobody likes people who butt into their business.  They offer suggestions and voice their opinions when we may not want or need them.   This can be especially true when it comes to parents and the style or manner in which they raise their children.

We encountered two situations recently where we didn’t say anything, but left possibly wishing that we should have.

The 17 month old in the eggshell

At Costco we were milling about the store getting some food and looking a book.  Baby Mojo loves books.  He was riding in the shopping cart, sitting up right in front of me while I pushed him around so he could wave to people.

When we were checking out we started a conversation with a mother who had a baby about our size, n a rear facing car seat.  As we were leaving she asked how old Baby Mojo was and I said ‘oh he’s almost 17 months how old is your guy’?  “He’s 16 months”, she said.

Why is this kid in an eggshell and not sitting up right?   I know that some people differ on when they take their toddler out of the rear facing baby seat into to the baby bucket seat.  However, even for those parents who use the later definitions, wouldn’t it benefit their child to have them sit upright while not in the car?

I knew nothing about this lady or this baby.  Maybe she was having a bad day and felt lazy (been there) or maybe the child needed to be in the eggshell for some reason.    The only reason it resonated with me was that another friend of ours still had their child rear facing and is a bit older than ours.

The Baby in the middle

I love to sleep.  Babies love to cry.  For newborns the sleep element takes a back seat for a couple months, but gradually comes back to more normal amount of sleep for mom and dad.  Having our son sleep in our bed wasn’t even a thought for us.  If my wife wanted our son to sleep in the bed with us she would have to agree to let the cat could accompany him.  As my wife would never agree to the cat sleeping in the bed she would immediately understand where I was coming from.

Disclaimer:  I’m not a doctor.  Having said that, don’t let your children sleep in the same bed with you.

If you’re a nursing mom then get one of those cribs that go alongside your bed.   If the child needs a hug to get them to sleep then go in their bed and slip out once they are comfortable.

It’s a personal decision, but based on our friends it seems that getting them to stop doing it is more difficult than nipping it in the bud.

We are by no means perfect.  That’s one reason why we write this-to learn from other people.  Have you ever intervened in either of the two instances when you encountered it?