Life Without Baby

filling the silence in the motherhood discussion

Whiny Wednesday: Uber Parents

Whiny WednesdayThey’re everywhere. You’ve heard them spouting about pre-schools. You’ve seen them take over restaurants. Maybe you’re even related to one!

They’re the topic for this week’s whine:

Uber-Parents

Here’s your chance to blow off steam.

Comments

  1. Happy Whinesday, and thanks for the opp :).
    One of my biggest pet peeves includes the enormous baby buggies/prams that take up the place of 3 people, and the complete lack of comprehension of this basic fact by parents. For example, on several occasions I gave been nearly trampled by one of these folks amusing their infant by rolling the buggy back and forth across a public doorway, essentially blocking it. Even more fun is when parents take the buggies to crowded events – it’s like someone is riding a motorcycle through a gopher hole, and I have the shoe damage to prove it.
    #2 – parents who noisily slurp their infants or chatter at them non-stop in a public place that is otherwise expected to be quiet, such as a library or doctor’s office. It actually tends to annoy the kids, adding their whining to the symphony, and said parents will be the first to complain about the “grating” sound you make by clipping a single fingernail.
    Finally, it would be great if relatively new parents would not completely take over mixed social events by fussing over their creation like they ARE the event. Aside from the obvious faux pas (if one must gloat, others should be given the same opportunity) it really does dumb things down.
    By now I’m sure you’re thinking that it’s better that I didn’t multiply myself, but in all seriousness, the first peeve isn’t good for anyone.

  2. I work with a shocking number of women who have five kids, and work full-time. They’re also uniformly perky, while I’m mainlining caffeine all day, slumped at my desk. Some of them spend the whole lunch hour in the gym. What’s up with all that? And they’re all higher levels than me. Shoot me now ( I sound light-hearted but I’ve had some serious angst over this).
    The 4-by-4 uber-pushchair thing really annoys me: I’ve been rammed in the ankles so many times. You do not automatically have priority on pavements just because you have one of those things, right.

  3. I’m so tired of the media converge given to overly sensitive breastfeeding advocates. The only people I know who care when mothers breastfeed in public are the mothers themselves! To everyone else, it’s a non issue.

    • I agree, I got so tired of the Target video being shared constantly. Not everything has to go viral.

  4. What a timely topic. I was somewhere last night when a mother arrived with her toddler in tow and it was astounding the amount of chatter that ensued in everyone’s need to make this child the center of attention. It’s almost a case of you have to go along to get along and cease all adult conversation. I know that part of my difficulty relating is based on the fact that I came from a family of twelve kids and this fawning just didn’t happen. We all grew up be be self sustaining, generous and resilient adults and I don’t think we were too damaged by the fact that we weren’t everyone’s darlings. It just appears that a lot of dependence gets created through all of the attention, picture taking, celebrating of every milestone that adults now seem to foist upon this next generation. I just hope that it doesn’t lead to too much self centeredness as they grow into adulthood. Only time will tell.

  5. I have a different whine this week (although I could complain about uber parents for hours). I have an adult, married stepdaughter and we were talking about names randomly with my husband and she brought up the boy baby name her and her husband picked out and it was the baby name my husband and I had chosen 8 years ago when we started trying for a baby. It’s a family name we wanted to pass down and we have been referring to our child as this name throughout treatments and trying. She’s not pregnant yet but it was like getting stabbed in the heart. Part of the pain was that name is associated with a child, that although never came to fruition, that was very real to me. I’m still in the grieving process and part of me hasn’t let go of hope of having a baby so knowing that not only could I lose my baby name, but my stepdaughter is likely to have baby before me is a harsh reality. I had been feeling better about being childless not by choice, but now I’m reminded I’m going to have to deal with being bypassed by a whole new generation. My niece was recently married too and I’m sure there will, be a baby announcement any day now. I brought up that it is the baby name we chose a while ago and would still like to use it but it’s hard to explain the pain associated with the name if you haven’t dealt with infertility. I feel like not only am I racing against my biological clock but now I’m also racing against my stepdaughter. Sadly though it’s not much of a race since we’ve exhausted our options.

  6. Permission to rant! Can’t in real life as office is wall-to wall mums. Fuming after a cycle ride to work where I got barked at by uber-mummies twice. If I don’t stop a metre behind the white line at the lights, I get a barrage of abuse from them about the light being red. I have never jumped a red light in my life so I hate these morons. Then to top it off, a procession of their tiny kids starts to cross with their miniature scooters, all eyeing me nastily, with gigantic mushroom heads in those stupid kiddy crash helmets. And there’s one kid just walking, but with a giant crash helmet. Because if he falls 75cm to the ground he might smash his skull, right. Honestly right now I detest those school-run mums and their giant-headed little lords: get out of my face cretins.

  7. The breastfeeding mothers in my workplace have taken over the building’s medical room. So when I needed access for time sensitive medication (this requires a clean room, privacy and good light) I had to fight them for access. The first uber mummy response was, no space in our schedule so go to the other building (7-8 min walk away) and use their room, no guarantee of a slot there either. After some backwards and forwards on email, two of the more reasonable ones adjusted their slots so I could use the room. At a time of high stress and worry I was stunned by the selfishness and lack of compassion in the first response. The room was also covered in baby photos, hand written declarations about the legal rights of breast feeding mothers and children’s cartoons.

  8. I’m participating in a 4-day youth work conference once again and there are two or three women who brought their several small children (from toddler to primary school age). They bring them to the speeches and talks and workshops. of course it creates a lot of unrest and honestly, what’s the frigging point? the kids are obviously extremely bored, they are much too young to understand or have any interest in what is going on. And I guess the moms can only follow half of what’s being said anyway because they are busing keeping the kids calm.