Someone said something to me the other day that kind of offended me. Well, actually I was exactly sure how to feel. I wasn’t sure if they meant it as a compliment in the sense that my kid is stylish and hip or if they were trying to call me a weirdo and bad parent. 
This person, who shall remain nameless, said, “Jax is so cute with his little outfits and attitude. He’s like your little accessory! You should get him one of those cute bags like Paris Hilton has for her dogs and take him with you everywhere!” ummmm… well the first thing I did was completely ignore the part where she compared my human child to Paris Hilton’s mini Chihuahua. She’s single, childless and young…therefore clueless! What stood out to me was, accessory. Am I really one of those parents who treats their kid like an accessory? Why because I dress my kid with a little bit of style?
Here’s the thing, once kids get to a certain age where they aren’t soiling the front of their clothes every five seconds with breast milk and formula, it becomes fun to dress them up. Dare I say like little dolls? Boys or girls, really! I mean they just have the cutest mini skinny jeans, ties, vests, graphic T’s & tennis shoes. And my kid loves it when he gets all dressed up! Lots of people without kids don’t realize this, but for the most part raising kids is FUN! Yes, there are lots of sleepless nights, lots of moments you may wanna scream, and you have to schedule in sex.But the joy of parenthood and all the great fun stuff you do with your kids outweigh that stuff FOR SURE! Kids are amazing little people who soak up knowledge and spread love in a way us adults just can’t do, so it’s unbelievable to watch the world turn through their eyes. I’ve never had this much fun in my whole life! I don’t think I’ve laughed and loved this much in my whole life. And to be honest dressing your kid up for an outing is apart of that fun! Especially when they start having opinions about what it is they’d like to pair up for each event! And to kids, EVERYTHING is an event!
Now not to say that my girlfriend meant what she said in a negative way, but I’ve found that people seem to be very very eager to offer their opinion about your parenting skills! And usually they are folks without children! I had some old dried up bitter prune pass me and my sister in Starbucks the other day and say loud enough in passing, “Maybe if someone would pay attention to him he wouldn’t make so much noise!” The best thing she could have done was cowardly walk away as she said this. First of all, clearly you don’t have children if you take my son asking for the milk that isn’t ready yet and for the banana I am trying to peel as someone not paying attention to him. You see after you’ve said 10 times, that it’s not ready and they continue to ask, you just stop answering because the only thing that is gonna shut them up is the thing they want… THAT ISN’T READY YET! But if you had a toddler, I’m sure you could recognize the difference between a toddler’s impatient attitude and parents not paying attention to their child’s needs!
But really, where do you get off? Now I see how my mom would get snappy with strangers coming to our rescue and trying to hand us the chocolate sample we wanted and mom barked we couldn’t have. People are too damn nosey and opinionated!If I wanna let my kid ride his bike to the coffee shop in his doctor’s outfit and drink his milk out of a Starbucks cup like his mom, then what business is that of yours? If he grows up to be a pretentious little know it all because he drank out of Starbucks cup at 2…well then, my bad! But at the end of the day, he’ll be my pretentious little know it all! And if I wanna dress him in skinny jeans, vans & a button down & my Ray-Ban wayfarers to match his outfit, then so be it! He’s my kid and deep down inside, I realize, you just wish you were as cool as my toddler! What can I say, the skinny jean diaper look just isn’t for everyone!
