Meanie Moms

If you're a parent, I'm can say with relative confidence that you have (or will) encounter a "meanie mom" at some point, if not regularly. What's a meanie mom? These are the moms you meet who, clearly, know everything. These moms have their shit together, and are more than happy to tell you all about it, and "help" you with your many obvious deficiencies as a parent. Some are pretty forward and will tell you exactly what they think you're doing wrong, others will be more sneaky (but just as jerky). Here are some examples of meanie mom comments, please share your favourites in the comments!
1. As your child drinks from their sippy cup of pink liquid, clearly juice of some kind... "Oh I won't let MY Kimmie have juice, it rots their teeth right out!"
(I've got news for you lady, their teeth are gonna fall out anyway... They're baby teeth!)
2. "I would rather wrap MY Timmy in a tea towel then ever let a 'sposie touch him!"
(I've discovered that a "'sposie" is a disposable diaper... Apparently they are evil.)
3. "You're letting her feed herself already? Wow, you're very brave.... I couldn't stand having my house such a mess."
4. One of my personal favs is when Meanie Mom speaks to your child (an infant who can't talk back) instead of directly to you... "Look how sweet and tiny you are! Doesn't anybody feed you?"
"Tell your mommy you need to have your clothes changed bc you made an itty bitty spill on yourself and she hasn't noticed!" (Guess what? I have noticed, I just don't care. You may want to spend your life doing laundry, but not I.)
Come on Mommas, we all worry about our little ones and we are all doing our very best, can we not lay off each other a little here? After The Princess was born I struggled with some post-partum depression, one thing in particular was the overwhelming feeling that everyone else was doing a better job than I was. Everyone else handled everything while I was dropping the ball left and right. I've since learned that this is perception, and the image other moms try to put out of themselves. I went to a workshop on toddler nutrition and heard a group of about ten moms all speaking over each other and literally competing with each other for the imaginary best mom award. "I cook my son steel cut oats for breakfast every morning!", "In my house we only eat whole grains.", "I grind my own flax and add it to everything." "I hide puréed vegetables in all our foods." There was not a word of support from anyone and honestly I left there thinking, a) Why did all these perfect moms sign up for a workshop when they clearly have it under control? Did they just come to "help" by sharing their infinite wisdom?, and b) I'm the worst mom ever.
Is this really how we want to make each other feel? I've really taken a new approach to talking about parenting with other moms since then. I try really hard to be brutally honest, even if I sound like I'm a mess (which most of the time, lets face it, we all are!), and to try and keep an open mind about everyone having their own way of doing things. It's not always easy, but it's worth trying, because we're all doing the best we can and we need support from each other, not to be made to feel worse. Down with the meanie moms! ;)