Family Shenanigans

When R was a baby, we used to go to a toddler group. One week in the school hols, one of the other mums turned up with both her baby and her older child (probably about 6). The older child had a big furry rabbit costume on. If I’m honest, I thought “WTF??? Why is she dressed in that silly costume?” More to the point, I wondered why on earth the mum had let her leave the house like that.

Forward wind a few years… R is now 4. Yesterday while I was watching R have her swimming lesson, a mum wandered in with her little girl dressed in full father christmas costume. Yes, it’s March. Did I frown? Did I disapprove? Well, I actually found myself smiling. “How lovely”, I thought to myself. “That little girl was probably so passionate about dressing up that maybe just for once, her mum put aside her own vanity and cares about what other people might think and surprised her daughter by saying ‘yes, darling of course you can wear your santa outfit’.” What a lovely nurturing mum and what a lucky girl I thought as I sat smiling to myself.

Then the little girl proceeded to have a tantrum and throw down the packet of crisps she’d just been bought from the vending machine and stamp on them. She didn’t stop screeching for ages. “Mmmm” I wondered. “more likely her mum just let her wear the santa outfit because she was shouting blue murder when they left the house.” Perhaps not such a rosey image of parenting as the one I’d conjured up before. But ooops! There I go judging again…