Judgy Mc Judgerson

I generally try not to judge other parents in the hopes that they will not judge me. Plus, what the hell do I know? Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. (See e.g. rittenhouse square mom who judged me for putting my kid in shoes before she was one, but she was WALKING and robez were not going to cut it on the streets of philly; lady who thought it was her busy-ness to point out that J had a fork in a restaurant even though I knew that and J USES FORKS TO EAT;* the woman walking down the hall to the airplane that had only 14 passengers and was annoyed that I was letting J walk to the plane herself while I struggled with a stroller and a suitcase whose handle had broken off AFTER I got through security).

Anyway, J is having a birthday party in a few weeks and one mom RSVP'ed that she and her 14 month old could not come because the party directly coincides with his daily 2 hour nap. Listen, I get nap time. Really I do. Admittedly, I don't follow any regemented nap schedule with J, in part because the nanny has to deal with her during the day, not me, and J is not the world's best napper (I use the phrase "deal with her" with complete love and adoration, of course). She sleeps overnight like a champ, but during the day it is about 45 minutes to 2 hours at any given point in the day.

So I do not get this response. Seriously, you aren't going to come to a birthday party 5 blocks from your house because of everyday naptime? What else has your kid missed out on because of this stringent rule? What have you missed out on? Do you have to leave family events at particular times? What if you have to drive somewhere at like 1:38pm? Then what are you going to do?

I know that I may be a bad parent because I don't let nap time get in the way of things. If there is something fun for us to do, or just me, or just her, we go ahead and do it. There is time for sleep later. And I think J has become a pretty flexible kid, so I don't regret those decisions.

So there, I am judging another parent. And I apologize to those readers who also adhere to a strict nap schedule....I don't mean to, I really only judge this woman, who my nanny says is really hard on her nanny. I don't like that either.

In retrospect, perhaps it is better that they don't come. I just feel bad for the kid, I made some wicked fun goody bags.

*please note that I forgave this lady fairly quickly. She was an older lady out to eat dinner by herself at 5pm (which was also when J and I were out to eat). After my initial mind your own business lady reaction, I realized that she may just be lonely and wanted to engage with us in someway. Unfortunately she picked a divisive way. I also realized that I may be her someday and should not be mean to future me.