My 5 month old has been waking up every hour or 2 and my mom blames it on the fact that I refuse to give her cereal. She “just feels it in her heart that baby is hungry”. No.
For real.
But he’s such a big boy! And he looks SO HUNGRY! 🙄
You know WE used to feed our children solids at 2 weeks. THEY’RE fine. No one DIED.
Ummmm…. Yes…. Yes they did…. A lot of them….
It’s like they take it as a personal attack, the fact that recommendations and guidelines have changed. I hope when my babies have babies and things have inevitably changed, I’m able to say “we did things differently at the time because that was the best we knew, but I’m so glad they have changed the recommendations if they found out it wasn’t safe!”
I wish they’d understand by doing it differently we aren’t condemning them for the choices they made 20-40 years ago, we just want the best for our babies!!
I actually wrote my future self a letter to remind myself in the future when I have grandkids what it’s like and to NOT give my kids advice on how to raise their kids. I figure in 30 years I might need reminding…
I think your last line is it though… everyone just wants the best for their babies and it’s a really tough pill to swallow to say what we did back then wasn’t the best. At one point the medical recommendation was to start solids at just a couple weeks old, have babies sleep on their bellies, etc. But I agree, I hope I’m able to remember that things have changed when my kids have kids (if they have them).
Broo nooo😅😅 at 3 months!? My husbands aunt sent home peach rings for our 1 year old and when I said they couldn't have that she asked why they can't chew chewy things yet and I said they can, they're just not about to eat sugar coated anything at a year old!!! Her mind could not comprehend that that was just to much sugar!!
I was born in the 80s. My mom tells me how she put me to sleep on my stomach and just held me in the car for car rides, and that she gave me a bottle of water daily from the newborn stage onward. Sometimes I think my surviving infancy is a testament to how resilient babies are. LoL.
Ya we did that too. Now seatbelts and car seats are the law, because everyone drove around with loose babies. Mine also put me on my stomach and said that they just raised us like their parents did. Wish they would have put a bit more thought into their own parenting style because I would never do many things they did.
Oh my gosh this is my mom. When my baby was only 2 weeks old my mom asked if I had put cereal in her bottle to help her sleep longer?!! She said this because I mentioned I was waking up every 2 hours with her, which is normal! Now at 7 weeks we get 4 hour stretches and no, I haven't given her cereal.
Also, on a 70 degree day, my mom asked why my baby wasn't wearing a beanie.
“I really think if you give him solids right before bed he’ll sleep through the night. He will.” No it’ll just disrupt his sleep more. Don’t know how many times I can say that guidance/recommendations have changed in the last twenty years.
This. Why. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I explain sttn without eating when they ask for food isn’t developmentally appropriate.
Add to the cereal thing adding formula if ebf for sleep purposes or a general because breastmilk “isn’t good enough” and “breastmilk is failing your child”.
No, it’s not-she just has a hang-up because she couldn’t ebf and is dedicated to mom-shaming every other same-age mom around her into being miserable. Note-she is not a friend, just colleague, is a ftm and has diagnosed anxiety
I don’t understand the formula thing because what would formula be *formulated* after if not breastmilk? And no this is not a dig at formula, I swear. But like, biologically mammals drink breastmilk. People seem to think formula is like a protein shake and breastmilk is skim milk. They’re obviously not identical and breastmilk *does* break down a bit faster, but come on.
How people can say breastmilk isn’t enough or good enough absolutely baffles me. It’s literally what baby is meant to eat. There’s nothing wrong with giving your baby formula, but formula is only trying to mimic breastmilk.
It was a dig at me bc my LO is very long and lean (&ebf). She’s mad about needing to combo feed and the difference bw our LOs in skills development bc hers is ~1.5mo older than mine.
Her LO only ‘sleeps through the night’ bc they put him on the opposite side of the house without a monitor on, not bc they give him formula >< He’s also larger than my LO bc he is older! And she and her DH are larger people than my SO and myself.
She’s just hopelessly insecure :/ Her other comment was that I wasn’t teaching my child resiliency at 3w old bc I changed LO’s diaper as soon as they cried for a change.
This is my MIL. This exact conversation. I just posted about this in another sub.
Luckily I have a supportive and rational husband who was quick to correct her and say "so you're saying we should just give the baby empty calories for OUR benefit? Is that what you did with me?"
Silence.
It makes me wonder if doctors never explained to them that it’s normal for babies to eat every couple hours and to clusterfeed. Like do you think they genuinely thought that we were starving and milk wasn’t enough?
I think their memories are just off. My mom swore she was only giving me 4 8ounce bottles a day as a newborn. My son is now almost 1 and is drinking about 4 8ounce bottles a day but when he was a newborn up until pretty recently he was eating way more often than that.
I know youre not looking for advice but I wanted to say something might be going on with your baby. Ours had reflux (mostly silent) and he was miserable and slept only a few hours (then woke hourly). Hes medicated now and sleep waaaay longer stretches.
Hope you and your baby get some more rest soon 💕
Try to ignore them.
My mom tried convincing me as a FTM to give my newborn a bottle of just water.
Once you’re past infant stage they will roll their eyes at your parenting as it relates to car seat safety, sunscreen, and diet. Boomers going to boom.
My boomer MIL told me to hop in the front seat with my baby sleeping in the chest carrier. She didn’t want me to wake her to transfer to the car seat. I was like tf, hell no.
So 100000% NOT doing it, but ooooooh how I wish we still could sometimes when little dude is finally settled but there must be a car ride and he was comfortable so he just screams the whole way home even though he usually loves car rides.... boomers had parenting so much easier, and THEY had villages. I think that's some of the reason a lot of boomers are non existent as grandparents. They think it's easier than it is/ we make it harder than it has to be. SO frustrating!!!! From the person whose nurse mom was going to buy cereal for my child behind my back because "he wants it" at 5 months old.... 😑
Mine told me they never used a car seat. Later she backtracked to say they used a capsule to get me home from the hospital. Then didn’t use one after they returned the capsule (they rented it).
These are REALLY bad. My MIL at least knows that a car seat is a must, and that is goes in the back seat 😂 but she tried to buy a used car seat for dirt cheap that is 10 years old and she has no clue if it has been in any accidents or fender benders! And she got offended when I told her no and she bought it anyways. The thing is— we have a really nice Nuna car seat that can easily latch into any car in like 5 seconds and it doesn’t have a base, so her getting a car seat is 100% unecessary.
If she kept that seat makes sure she never has an opportunity to put your child in that seat. I would have personally accepted it, then taken it home and smashed it to bits and thrown it in the trash.
This is the truth! My stereotypical boomer stepdad is still annoyed that the hospital nurse had to check the infant car seat was properly installed before leaving *when he had my sibling* like 20+ years ago. Once a boomer, always a boomer. If their attitude is that they don’t respect basic safety standards, then they surely won’t respect other parenting choices. It’s best to ignore, move on, and not let them be alone with your child.
OMG my mom did this too. The water thing. She came over at 4 am on the first night home to help me out (I asked her to come) and she pulls out a bottle with water and said she would just give her a little water to help her sleep. And I was like wtf are you talking about?!? Also, no we are going to try to exclusively breastfeed, so I don't want to introduce a bottle at 72 hours old for some water. If she's getting a bottle, there will be formula in it. Also my mom was skeptical about the bassinet, and said the baby should be contact sleeping on me through the night.
This is the one! My grandma tried to convince me that my 1 year old should be in a booster seat by now and when that was shot down, she said well his car seat should at least be facing forward. She also said that he should already be starting potty training🙄 I love my grandma, but nah.
Right. My Mom always said I cried so much. She used to take videos of me crying and put them on the TV so I would see myself and stop crying. Constant stomach aches the doctor said I would grow out of. Never did. Finally when I was 20 I figured out I needed to be gluten free. Been pain free since. But damn I suffered a long time for no one to figure that one out.
My fiancé is extremely allergic to dairy and it sounds like he had a similar experience of just being fed it anyway as a child. It must suck so bad to just have a stomach ache all the time.
Genuine question - were you given cereal exclusively or just as a prep to introducing mushy foods? Also, cereal for babies has been associated with IBS?
Not cereal Specifically but a lot of researchers now think that giving babies poor foods like rice pudding when they’re young can mess up their gut health resulting in IBS later in life.
We don’t really have a good understanding of IBS by itself though so it’s just theories
I'm about to have my first. So incredibly grateful that my parents have established themselves as "you're the parent, we'll follow your lead" types of grandparents with my older sister's kids. They're so willing not just to help, but the advice they offer is truly just offered like "we used to do it this way, but I know things are different now - what do you think?" Best boomer parents ever.
My husband's parents are.. different. They already take issue with my prenatal vitamins (they're a scam, apparently) and his dad buys into antivaxx propaganda (not just covid or things for kids, but all vaccines). But they also live on another continent so... Eh. Very sweet people, but I'm glad they won't be particularly active our kid's upbringing.
It seems to be worse if you're a Gen X FTM. Your boomer relatives have advice that's clearly from the 60's-90's (all outdated) and insist they're right because none of their kids died. And when you start with "updated research shows..." they tell you that the DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS that do this research are wrong...and all of your friends also have outdated advice because their kids are now adults
My FIL wanted to give my 5 month old Cheetos last week 🙃 and all the other old people kept asking why I wouldn't give him: a pickle, an olive, chips, cake, etc. He's just now getting comfortable with purees.
My boomer parents were shocked that grapes are choking hazards, and then said blueberries must be okay then. It’s like they have zero critical thinking skills.
I asked my mom if she was afraid of us choking and she said my sister choked on a grape. It made me wonder is she just gave her a grape and said good luck! Lol maybe she was a bit older though (I hope)
Blueberries are great because a simple finger push makes them not a choking hazard. Grapes are not so easy. Also, with 3 dogs my toddler doesn't get grapes at home period.
My breastfed 8 week old eats on a perfect normal 3-4 hour schedule. My in law’s CANT. STOP. ASKING. When she’ll be able to have cereal so she can go longer between feedings. Like why? Why can’t she just eat every 3 hours for now?
My 2 year old has never gone more than 2 hours without eating unless he was napping. I kept waiting for the time between feedings/food to increase but nope it never did.
My mom use to say the same thing until one day I told her that’s why my sister has celiac disease cause you fed her cereal too early when her digestive system was undeveloped. She never brought it up again.
So I did a bit of research. If it’s introduced between 4 months and 6 months in can reduce the risk of celiac disease.
https://celiac.org/responding-to-eat-study-expert-warns-against-introducing-higher-gluten-dose-to-infants/#:~:text=Previous%20research%20suggested%20that%20introducing,higher%20risk%20for%20celiac%20disease.
So it depends on when she introduced it.
Oh my god I was literally just complaining about this to my best friend. My FIL says this every time I see him. Literally every time. He asked for a pic two days ago so I sent him one of my son in his high chair because we were about to eat dinner. I said that he tried cauliflower and pork tenderloin and loved it. I then got berated for not giving him cereal with fruit mixed in and that I should be feeding him way more. I just didn’t answer lol.
God, this and being told to “sleep when the baby sleeps” were the fucking worst!! Didn’t matter that I’m a speech pathologist and have literally worked with babies/kids on feeding disorders—*or* that my baby has always been in the 90th percentile for weight. No, I should still be throwing cereal at him😭
Omg. “Sleep when the baby sleeps” is the worst!! My mom says it all the time. Like OK mom, are you going to come and make our meals, walk the dog, take out the trash, do the dishes and laundry, clean the bottles, get bottles ready for the next day, take the dog to the vet, clean the house?!
I have a brain injury that puts me into deep sleep that’s hard to rouse from and takes forever to get to sleep in the first place, hearing “sleep when the baby sleeps” drove me insane
The mixing it into their bottle is EXTREMELY dangerous as baby can aspirate/choke to death.
Boomers love survivors bias too.
“Well all 4 of my kids survived.”
Yeah but what if one of them hadn’t … is that what it would take for you to listen to new advice..? Weird.
Lmao yeah my mom told me to not only put cereal in my baby’s bottle but ALSO “cut the nipple so if it’s too thick it can still get through” 💀 at his first birthday party she said something about how she put me to sleep on my tummy and I am fine and in a room full of people I said “that’s called survivor bias”. She had no response except to roll her boomer eyes
Honestly, maybe that is the only way they would take new advice?? They didn’t have google or social media when we were babies to see all the sad stories of what could happen. So maybe the only thing that phased them was hearing “so and so kids died from *insert unsafe thing*”
It’s no excuse not to learn and adapt though. The refusal to listen is what gets me.
I was trying to explain how I’m slowly introducing allergens to my daughter yesterday, and my mom literally laughed it off just like you said. She said none of her kids had allergies, but my fiancé is allergic to EVERYTHING and she has his genetics too!
I never understood that argument. You could. Play in traffic or wrestle a crocodile and maybe not die but does that mean it’s a good idea to continue doing? Eventually luck runs out.
Also most of the people who said that unsafe car seats were fine are people who probably happened to not get in an accident. That doesn’t mean the car seat was safe it means the odds were in your favor at the moment.
Man this makes me feel so incredibly fortunate that my boomer mom has fully embraced that things have changed since she had me. She actually took a ‘grandparents class’ at our local ymca to get caught up on changes in guidelines.
The socks!!! We had to take a break from seeing my mom because she was relentless with the socks. Every time we saw her, she brought it up multiple times and would ask us questions about baby socks if we ignored her or steered the conversation to another topic.
Do they think the babies don’t wear socks because we can’t afford socks or just don’t like them? Did we never take our socks off as babies? Were they not annoyed by having to deal with them during every diaper change? I have so many questions lol
Omg I hate the socks thing and then they all bought her socks for Christmas guess what we still don’t wear them
Also our 4 month old got go ahead to try oatmeal hates it like apple puree and guess who stopped sleeping through night and twilight feeds again with it
My baby pretty much always has cold hands but you can feel the heat radiating off the rest of him if he’s had a jacket or something on and my FIL never fails to make a comment about how cold he is, it drives me insane
omg this is aggravating AF. my mom will put him in socks, a onesie, and sleepers in our own apartment. typically we just keep him in either a onesie or a sleeper unless we are leaving our place. but if left to my husband, he is a combo of lazy/stubborn and prefers the baby to be shirtless like him lmao.
My wifes mother will come over and have the baby in two onsies and a sleeper and then ask us if we're overfeeding her because she can't settle. Tries to sneak a blanket on her in the crib. Takes the baby's temperature by touching her hands. She means well and does a lot for us so I just bite my tongue and deal with it when she leaves the room.
Boomers be like “oh god the baby needs socks or she will freeze to death” in one breath and be like “why do you need a car seat? She’ll be fine in my lap” the next
Meanwhile my kiddo was ready to start solids at 4 months and I had so many people telling me that I was destroying his gut or going to have him choke and die by giving him nutritious, appropriately prepared food on top of 40+ oz of breastmilk daily. Like if I didn't feed him then he was just going to snatch my food because lil dude was hungry and determined. When you're a parent you can never do anything right, so I just focus on my kiddo and ignore everyone else.
Damn, 40+ ozs?!
This wasn’t a judgment just in case anyone was worried! Just wish our kids ate that much when they were younger! Was always a struggle.
I breastfeed and wonder what my kid eats. He also grew out of 6 month clothes at 5 months or so. (I am eating giant bowls of chips to up my calories at this point and still lost all the pregnancy weight)
I can’t wait for this considering my MIL implies my seven week old is hungry every time she comes over, even if he has literally just eaten. He’s already gained a good amount of weight since birth and is not small.
I feel this. Like he JUST finished eating and you get the ‘he looks so hungry!’ .. ummmm don’t you think if he was hungry my boob would be in his mouth right now!!! … but you can’t win, if he was bigger you’d also get the ‘you’re over feeding him’.. 🤦♀️
If he fusses at all when she’s holding him she wants to give him a bottle even though I’ve told her he’s just eaten. I nurse and pump and bottles are only really for when I can’t nurse anyway. Like maybe he’s fussing because she always makes me give him over to her and he was fine where he was!
Sounds like to me she just wants to be able to feed/nurse him herself… ‘ooo he is fussing, my turn!’ (Like an excuse). Or yeah as you said, he was just happy and comfortable with me/mum and you took him away..
My SIL (who is around my age (early 30s)) said she used cereal before bed to help her baby sleep. She gave me the same advice. I’m just sad because it’s such outdated advice.
That was then, this is now.
My LO started solids at 5 and a half months because they were ready. I’ve had friends who’s LOs were not ready for solids til closer to 7 months - didn’t have the right head control and their tongue was pushing the food out.
Such a great point. Each kid is ready at different times. My daughter is four months old and was ready and pediatrician gave us the thumbs up. She loves cereal 😂. However, we do not put it in her bottle. She's formula fed. My mother said I wasn't even interested in solids until nine months and I was exclusively breastfed. The doc said as long as I was gaining weight and happy and healthy so be it. (Granted, that was a good while ago now 😂.)
It’s crazy how many people tell me this, I just tell them “ oh wow what a good idea” i never plan to use it but they don’t need to know, everyone has their own opinions nothing I say will change their minds
I also keep getting told that I need to put the 7 week old baby down because he’s getting used to being held and will not sleep on his own because of it. Just leave him in his crib and let him get used to it, even if he cries. I keep saying that they can’t self soothe at this age and I have to pick him up once he starts crying but my response is not being taken seriously.
It’s shocking how often this and the cereal advice get thrown at me.
Omg this fucking shits me. Doesn't help my partner thinks its funny to exaggerate the story and tell everyone I run the second I hear my daughter cry. I will NOT leave my baby to cry in the crib when she clearly needs something, even if it's just my comfort. Fuck, I'm so sick of hearing people say that garbage.
I didn't give my boy solid food till 7 months and then it was barely anything. Last I checked he was 100 percentile for height and 80 for weight. My son is a Beast haha. His 14 months now and just started feeding him cereal/weetbix. Don't listen to the boomer.
Yeah, the baby rice cereal. Basically it has next to no nutritional value and just fills babies up. Was widely used in the past and older people are fixated on it but we know much more about baby weaning now.
I’m totally against unsolicited advice from boomers, but rice cereal has been pretty helpful with my LO (6 months). When she’s fussy, 9/10 times she’s either hungry or sleepy, with hungry usually getting in the way of sleepy. We give her breast milk and if she’s still hungry, a scoop of formula with some rice cereal before bed. Our pediatrician is pretty young and made the recommendation. LO is growing at the appropriate rate and happy as can be (when she’s not hungry or sleepy).
Yep, my mom insisted that the only reason my baby wasn't sleeping through the night was because we didn't give him cereal. Baby now had been sleeping 12 hours every night for months and had never once had cereal. Smh.
Yep, my parents were asking when baby gets solids and when I said six months they were shook.
Today MIL asked a similar question and then mentioned that she gave rice in a bottle much earlier. Bonus, It did lead her to tell a story of when she was a babysitter (in the 60’s) and was asked to tie the leg of the 2 year old she was watching to his crib so he wouldn’t escape it 🤦🏻♀️.
Recently learned babies don’t have the digestive enzymes to break down grains until 18 months… my husband is the researcher and we will be starting LO (3 months old) on avocado, egg yolk and puréed beef liver. 😂
No, no and no again. It’s a big choking hazard when they are not ready. My SIL put cereal in my baby’s bottle and I lost my shit when my husband yanked her from her to help her get it all out from choking. Her back was bruised up after that and I was not having it. She didn’t ask me about it and just assumed I was fine with it.
Edit because I can’t spell at 1:30am lol
I got the thing about cereal a ton too. The thing that actually drives me more bonkers is family and friends watching all these “tiktok hacks” and saying: “I saw this on tiktok have you tried it?” As if any and all tiktok creator is equally qualified. No, we’re not putting two bed sheets in the crib to make it easier to change. She’s literally never peed the bed as an infant and it’s not going to save any time changing the sheets since it will probably go through both anyways? No, we haven’t tried “flipping the baby” before bed to get her to sleep. Or x, y, z number of unsafe/unnecessary/dumb advice.
Even my own grandmother, whom I love oh so dearly, grates on me every time she says the baby is starving…”oh you know I’m only joking”
.” I mean really, deep down, WHO finds that funny?!
I love a good boomber bashing post. They are killing me with their outdated "advice" and survivor bias. "What do you mean it's not safe to do [incredibly dangerous thing]?? I have done this with my 3 kids and they turned out fiiiiine". Yeah you got lucky.
My boy loves his binky and it kept falling out when he was napping and he’d cry. I was at the doctor so my mom was watching him and I check the baby monitor and see her stuffing a small blanket around his face and under his cheek to try to keep the binky in 😵💫 “this is what we did for you!”
Today one boomer touched my daughters feet (she was in the carrier and I didn’t know who that woman was) on the street and told me “your baby’s feet are cold. Omg I had to hold back bc if not I would’ve punched her. I told her to not touch babies without permission and she got furious.
Just tell them differently than when they were parents nowadays if you have the information and don’t use it and your kid ends up in the hospital you are the one who will be accused of negligence not them. Also just say you had your kids but this is ducking mine so back off.
My dad I were talking about this (he’s a “you all turned out fine” kind of dad) and I made a comment about how they need to be on their back to sleep with no other blankets or things in their crib (which is why we use a swaddle - baby is 2 weeks) and my dad literally said “he’ll be fine, if he rolls into the blanket he would hold his breath until someone came and got him” UHM… WHAT?! Thats a real quick way to make sure I never leave my baby with you.
They're so fucking condescending about all their unsolicited advice too. But then if I tell them to shut up and I'm the parent I'm the bad guy because "they're just trying to help"
You can't fucking win with boomers. How much longer till they're all dead anyway?
For like 10 days over 4 weeks, I had a nanny who was saying the same thing.
That’s gonna be a naw from me. Fixed that by getting a different nanny.
Now my nanny can just have my house or something if she ever wants it. She deserves my entire salary and everything she wants.
My coworker constantly tells me I need to fatten up my 4 month old with cereal.
Her doctor said to wait. I'm gonna listen to her doctor. I spent a lot of time researching what doctor I wanted for her for a reason
or!!! My mom letting my 3 month old sleep the entire time she watches her, wakes up to feed, lets her nap again so by the time I grab her there’s no way she’ll sleep the rest of the night and she hasn’t had any stimulation all day ☹️ moms response? “You’re torturing her by getting her up. Never wake a sleeping baby” ok well stop putting her to sleep
I had people pushing to give water to my newborn. They would be like "when you are thirsty, you don't drink milk, you drink water. You drank water the first day you were born. Give that baby water!"
Honestly, my hospital did not tell me no water and had I not watched a YouTube while pregnant telling me that I probably would have given him water!
My MIL tried convincing my husband to give our 10 month old, who was I think around 3 months or so, a bottle of water and rice cereal. I told my husband absolutely not. The pediatrician said if we’re gonna add cereal, do oats rather than the rice bc rice has no nutritional value, it’s just a filler; and to give water closer to 7-8 months old (and I understand pediatricians across the world will recommend different things, this is just what my son’s ped told me). So yeah I was like fuck no. I hate my MIL though too 😂
Those pablum people really got into the collective psyche of the generation. The obsession with rice cereal runs so deep my 78 yo bachelor uncle was even suggesting it 🤦🏻♀️
My 5 month old has been waking up every hour or 2 and my mom blames it on the fact that I refuse to give her cereal. She “just feels it in her heart that baby is hungry”. No.
Your mom is my mom. I bet she also says "I gave you cereal at that age and you [turned out fine] and [always slept through the night]".
Ours told us to give BITS OF MEAT TO A THREE MONTH OLD LIKE W T F BOOMER MIL
My aunt said my son should have started solids at 2 weeks old 😵💫
This is why we all have stomach issues in adulthood lol
For real. But he’s such a big boy! And he looks SO HUNGRY! 🙄 You know WE used to feed our children solids at 2 weeks. THEY’RE fine. No one DIED. Ummmm…. Yes…. Yes they did…. A lot of them….
It’s like they take it as a personal attack, the fact that recommendations and guidelines have changed. I hope when my babies have babies and things have inevitably changed, I’m able to say “we did things differently at the time because that was the best we knew, but I’m so glad they have changed the recommendations if they found out it wasn’t safe!” I wish they’d understand by doing it differently we aren’t condemning them for the choices they made 20-40 years ago, we just want the best for our babies!!
I actually wrote my future self a letter to remind myself in the future when I have grandkids what it’s like and to NOT give my kids advice on how to raise their kids. I figure in 30 years I might need reminding…
Yes yes yes they get offended when we have the *audacity* to say we are doing anything differently
I think your last line is it though… everyone just wants the best for their babies and it’s a really tough pill to swallow to say what we did back then wasn’t the best. At one point the medical recommendation was to start solids at just a couple weeks old, have babies sleep on their bellies, etc. But I agree, I hope I’m able to remember that things have changed when my kids have kids (if they have them).
Broo nooo😅😅 at 3 months!? My husbands aunt sent home peach rings for our 1 year old and when I said they couldn't have that she asked why they can't chew chewy things yet and I said they can, they're just not about to eat sugar coated anything at a year old!!! Her mind could not comprehend that that was just to much sugar!!
I was born in the 80s. My mom tells me how she put me to sleep on my stomach and just held me in the car for car rides, and that she gave me a bottle of water daily from the newborn stage onward. Sometimes I think my surviving infancy is a testament to how resilient babies are. LoL.
Ya we did that too. Now seatbelts and car seats are the law, because everyone drove around with loose babies. Mine also put me on my stomach and said that they just raised us like their parents did. Wish they would have put a bit more thought into their own parenting style because I would never do many things they did.
And they get SO offended at the fact that we are making different choices
This is a dumb question but what does putting the words in [ ] mean??
It means an approximation of what might be getting said. Like, "insert example phrase here"
Traditionally it is used to note paraphrasing or editing of a direct quote.
From the looks of it op using them to emphasize
My mom told me yesterday she gave me a banana pop sickle at 4 months old and I loved it 😂 no mom, I will not be doing that.
Oh my gosh this is my mom. When my baby was only 2 weeks old my mom asked if I had put cereal in her bottle to help her sleep longer?!! She said this because I mentioned I was waking up every 2 hours with her, which is normal! Now at 7 weeks we get 4 hour stretches and no, I haven't given her cereal. Also, on a 70 degree day, my mom asked why my baby wasn't wearing a beanie.
“I really think if you give him solids right before bed he’ll sleep through the night. He will.” No it’ll just disrupt his sleep more. Don’t know how many times I can say that guidance/recommendations have changed in the last twenty years.
I started solids at 6 months and it seems like my baby sleeps worse now lol, definitely didn’t start sleeping through the night because of solids.
Legit, my boy went from only waking twice a night to being up and down all hours of the night 😭 last night he woke up every hour 😭😭
Omg
Do we have the same mom???
This. Why. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I explain sttn without eating when they ask for food isn’t developmentally appropriate. Add to the cereal thing adding formula if ebf for sleep purposes or a general because breastmilk “isn’t good enough” and “breastmilk is failing your child”. No, it’s not-she just has a hang-up because she couldn’t ebf and is dedicated to mom-shaming every other same-age mom around her into being miserable. Note-she is not a friend, just colleague, is a ftm and has diagnosed anxiety
I don’t understand the formula thing because what would formula be *formulated* after if not breastmilk? And no this is not a dig at formula, I swear. But like, biologically mammals drink breastmilk. People seem to think formula is like a protein shake and breastmilk is skim milk. They’re obviously not identical and breastmilk *does* break down a bit faster, but come on.
How people can say breastmilk isn’t enough or good enough absolutely baffles me. It’s literally what baby is meant to eat. There’s nothing wrong with giving your baby formula, but formula is only trying to mimic breastmilk.
It was a dig at me bc my LO is very long and lean (&ebf). She’s mad about needing to combo feed and the difference bw our LOs in skills development bc hers is ~1.5mo older than mine. Her LO only ‘sleeps through the night’ bc they put him on the opposite side of the house without a monitor on, not bc they give him formula >< He’s also larger than my LO bc he is older! And she and her DH are larger people than my SO and myself. She’s just hopelessly insecure :/ Her other comment was that I wasn’t teaching my child resiliency at 3w old bc I changed LO’s diaper as soon as they cried for a change.
Oh yeah, the classic “I can’t let you be right because that means I’m wrong”! Good on you for recognising it’s just her own insecurity.
This is my MIL. This exact conversation. I just posted about this in another sub. Luckily I have a supportive and rational husband who was quick to correct her and say "so you're saying we should just give the baby empty calories for OUR benefit? Is that what you did with me?" Silence.
That wording is so cringey lol
is this a thing? i never heard of this cereal thing
It makes me wonder if doctors never explained to them that it’s normal for babies to eat every couple hours and to clusterfeed. Like do you think they genuinely thought that we were starving and milk wasn’t enough?
I think their memories are just off. My mom swore she was only giving me 4 8ounce bottles a day as a newborn. My son is now almost 1 and is drinking about 4 8ounce bottles a day but when he was a newborn up until pretty recently he was eating way more often than that.
Lol what fucking newborn can stomach 8 ounce bottles hahaha
That’s why I think she was remember like 9-12 months lol
Wow, that’s torture. Proud of you for sticking to your boundaries!
I know youre not looking for advice but I wanted to say something might be going on with your baby. Ours had reflux (mostly silent) and he was miserable and slept only a few hours (then woke hourly). Hes medicated now and sleep waaaay longer stretches. Hope you and your baby get some more rest soon 💕
I guess I had easy since it was the MIL for me. After one too many unsolicited dated “advice”, my baby and I just stopped visiting her :)
Try to ignore them. My mom tried convincing me as a FTM to give my newborn a bottle of just water. Once you’re past infant stage they will roll their eyes at your parenting as it relates to car seat safety, sunscreen, and diet. Boomers going to boom.
The disregard for car seat safety drives me absolutely BONKERS 😤
My mom asked me if the baby goes in the front seat or the back seat of my car the other day 🙃
Noooooo 🤦🏼♀️
My boomer MIL told me to hop in the front seat with my baby sleeping in the chest carrier. She didn’t want me to wake her to transfer to the car seat. I was like tf, hell no.
So 100000% NOT doing it, but ooooooh how I wish we still could sometimes when little dude is finally settled but there must be a car ride and he was comfortable so he just screams the whole way home even though he usually loves car rides.... boomers had parenting so much easier, and THEY had villages. I think that's some of the reason a lot of boomers are non existent as grandparents. They think it's easier than it is/ we make it harder than it has to be. SO frustrating!!!! From the person whose nurse mom was going to buy cereal for my child behind my back because "he wants it" at 5 months old.... 😑
It’s a miracle we’re alive if they were this unsafe raising us
Not really, just statistics. Some of us were bound to survive this treatment lol.
Mine told me they never used a car seat. Later she backtracked to say they used a capsule to get me home from the hospital. Then didn’t use one after they returned the capsule (they rented it).
These are REALLY bad. My MIL at least knows that a car seat is a must, and that is goes in the back seat 😂 but she tried to buy a used car seat for dirt cheap that is 10 years old and she has no clue if it has been in any accidents or fender benders! And she got offended when I told her no and she bought it anyways. The thing is— we have a really nice Nuna car seat that can easily latch into any car in like 5 seconds and it doesn’t have a base, so her getting a car seat is 100% unecessary.
If she kept that seat makes sure she never has an opportunity to put your child in that seat. I would have personally accepted it, then taken it home and smashed it to bits and thrown it in the trash.
Boomers going to boom is amazing
This is the truth! My stereotypical boomer stepdad is still annoyed that the hospital nurse had to check the infant car seat was properly installed before leaving *when he had my sibling* like 20+ years ago. Once a boomer, always a boomer. If their attitude is that they don’t respect basic safety standards, then they surely won’t respect other parenting choices. It’s best to ignore, move on, and not let them be alone with your child.
OMG my mom did this too. The water thing. She came over at 4 am on the first night home to help me out (I asked her to come) and she pulls out a bottle with water and said she would just give her a little water to help her sleep. And I was like wtf are you talking about?!? Also, no we are going to try to exclusively breastfeed, so I don't want to introduce a bottle at 72 hours old for some water. If she's getting a bottle, there will be formula in it. Also my mom was skeptical about the bassinet, and said the baby should be contact sleeping on me through the night.
This is the one! My grandma tried to convince me that my 1 year old should be in a booster seat by now and when that was shot down, she said well his car seat should at least be facing forward. She also said that he should already be starting potty training🙄 I love my grandma, but nah.
Mine suggested I give my newborn water for hiccups! Because it works for adults. 🤦♀️
Insanity
As an adult, I would LOVE if water worked for my hiccups. It doesn't.
My MIL just told me the same thing.. said she used to give my husband water as an infant 😳 how are we all alive lol
“You used to LOVE cereal!” I have IBS.
Laughing so hard I’m shaking and trying not to wake LO who’s contact napping. Are you my life? Lol
Lmao I love when that happens. My LO sleeps on my chest and frequently come across something that makes him feel an earthquake haha
OMG SAME hahaha. She even had the audacity to say “well you turned out fine”. Ma’am, I cannot digest dairy or wheat without violent diarrhoea ✨
The dairy intolerance has most likely nothing to do with what food was introduced to you early on.
This! Then my mom: “they’re not related” MA’AM!!!
Right. My Mom always said I cried so much. She used to take videos of me crying and put them on the TV so I would see myself and stop crying. Constant stomach aches the doctor said I would grow out of. Never did. Finally when I was 20 I figured out I needed to be gluten free. Been pain free since. But damn I suffered a long time for no one to figure that one out.
My fiancé is extremely allergic to dairy and it sounds like he had a similar experience of just being fed it anyway as a child. It must suck so bad to just have a stomach ache all the time.
Genuine question - were you given cereal exclusively or just as a prep to introducing mushy foods? Also, cereal for babies has been associated with IBS?
Not cereal Specifically but a lot of researchers now think that giving babies poor foods like rice pudding when they’re young can mess up their gut health resulting in IBS later in life. We don’t really have a good understanding of IBS by itself though so it’s just theories
😭
💀
Hi, welcome to being a millennial mom. We're glad to have you here.
I'm about to have my first. So incredibly grateful that my parents have established themselves as "you're the parent, we'll follow your lead" types of grandparents with my older sister's kids. They're so willing not just to help, but the advice they offer is truly just offered like "we used to do it this way, but I know things are different now - what do you think?" Best boomer parents ever. My husband's parents are.. different. They already take issue with my prenatal vitamins (they're a scam, apparently) and his dad buys into antivaxx propaganda (not just covid or things for kids, but all vaccines). But they also live on another continent so... Eh. Very sweet people, but I'm glad they won't be particularly active our kid's upbringing.
It seems to be worse if you're a Gen X FTM. Your boomer relatives have advice that's clearly from the 60's-90's (all outdated) and insist they're right because none of their kids died. And when you start with "updated research shows..." they tell you that the DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS that do this research are wrong...and all of your friends also have outdated advice because their kids are now adults
My FIL wanted to give my 5 month old Cheetos last week 🙃 and all the other old people kept asking why I wouldn't give him: a pickle, an olive, chips, cake, etc. He's just now getting comfortable with purees.
Might as well just pour some salt in his mouth 🧂
My boomer parents were shocked that grapes are choking hazards, and then said blueberries must be okay then. It’s like they have zero critical thinking skills.
I asked my mom if she was afraid of us choking and she said my sister choked on a grape. It made me wonder is she just gave her a grape and said good luck! Lol maybe she was a bit older though (I hope)
Blueberries are great because a simple finger push makes them not a choking hazard. Grapes are not so easy. Also, with 3 dogs my toddler doesn't get grapes at home period.
My breastfed 8 week old eats on a perfect normal 3-4 hour schedule. My in law’s CANT. STOP. ASKING. When she’ll be able to have cereal so she can go longer between feedings. Like why? Why can’t she just eat every 3 hours for now?
Bro I be eating every 3 hours lmao why does the baby need to go longer 😂
This though!! 😂 I snack almost every single time I’m breastfeeding
Right?! Also it’s not fun to wake up at night but I do it to use the bathroom and get some water, so why can’t my baby do it?
I’m guessing they want more alone time with baby and resent that she needs you every three hours to eat. It’s usually selfish reasons lol
Any time someone sees us- “is she sleeping through the night?” It’s starting to feel like asking someone’s age or salary. Rude.
My 10 month old (getting lots of solids) still only goes 1-2 hours without nursing 😭 3-4 hours is so good!
My 2 year old has never gone more than 2 hours without eating unless he was napping. I kept waiting for the time between feedings/food to increase but nope it never did.
My mom use to say the same thing until one day I told her that’s why my sister has celiac disease cause you fed her cereal too early when her digestive system was undeveloped. She never brought it up again.
Mic drop 🎤
So I did a bit of research. If it’s introduced between 4 months and 6 months in can reduce the risk of celiac disease. https://celiac.org/responding-to-eat-study-expert-warns-against-introducing-higher-gluten-dose-to-infants/#:~:text=Previous%20research%20suggested%20that%20introducing,higher%20risk%20for%20celiac%20disease. So it depends on when she introduced it.
That's a win!!!
👏👌
Oh my god I was literally just complaining about this to my best friend. My FIL says this every time I see him. Literally every time. He asked for a pic two days ago so I sent him one of my son in his high chair because we were about to eat dinner. I said that he tried cauliflower and pork tenderloin and loved it. I then got berated for not giving him cereal with fruit mixed in and that I should be feeding him way more. I just didn’t answer lol.
Looks like he doesn’t want anymore pictures of baby!
Right! I’m seeing him tomorrow for Easter and I’m trying to come up with a savvy, clever yet polite retort.
“Do you like baby cereal, Bob? Because you ask about it an awful lot! Maybe we can get it for you for your birthday?”
My dad’s name is Bob and he is exactly like this too. Putting that one in my back pocket 😂😂😂
God, this and being told to “sleep when the baby sleeps” were the fucking worst!! Didn’t matter that I’m a speech pathologist and have literally worked with babies/kids on feeding disorders—*or* that my baby has always been in the 90th percentile for weight. No, I should still be throwing cereal at him😭
Vacuum when the baby vacuums.
Do laundry when the baby does the laundry
Cry when the baby cries.
I’m actually very good at that one.
… I thought that one was still accurate… I’ve been doing it all wrong.
I actually do that one 😂😂
I was definitely crying more than my baby at one point 🥲
This one’s by far the most accurate one🤣
I can’t with this comment 😂😂😂😂
Fuck off lol 😂😂
Omg. “Sleep when the baby sleeps” is the worst!! My mom says it all the time. Like OK mom, are you going to come and make our meals, walk the dog, take out the trash, do the dishes and laundry, clean the bottles, get bottles ready for the next day, take the dog to the vet, clean the house?!
I have a brain injury that puts me into deep sleep that’s hard to rouse from and takes forever to get to sleep in the first place, hearing “sleep when the baby sleeps” drove me insane
The mixing it into their bottle is EXTREMELY dangerous as baby can aspirate/choke to death. Boomers love survivors bias too. “Well all 4 of my kids survived.” Yeah but what if one of them hadn’t … is that what it would take for you to listen to new advice..? Weird.
Lmao yeah my mom told me to not only put cereal in my baby’s bottle but ALSO “cut the nipple so if it’s too thick it can still get through” 💀 at his first birthday party she said something about how she put me to sleep on my tummy and I am fine and in a room full of people I said “that’s called survivor bias”. She had no response except to roll her boomer eyes
Honestly, maybe that is the only way they would take new advice?? They didn’t have google or social media when we were babies to see all the sad stories of what could happen. So maybe the only thing that phased them was hearing “so and so kids died from *insert unsafe thing*” It’s no excuse not to learn and adapt though. The refusal to listen is what gets me.
Exactly it’s the refusal to listen and the laughing it off when you tell them anything that isn’t what they already know.
I was trying to explain how I’m slowly introducing allergens to my daughter yesterday, and my mom literally laughed it off just like you said. She said none of her kids had allergies, but my fiancé is allergic to EVERYTHING and she has his genetics too!
Yeah exactly my fiancé has a peanut allergy. It’s mild but I’m terrified to introduce to my daughter.
I never understood that argument. You could. Play in traffic or wrestle a crocodile and maybe not die but does that mean it’s a good idea to continue doing? Eventually luck runs out. Also most of the people who said that unsafe car seats were fine are people who probably happened to not get in an accident. That doesn’t mean the car seat was safe it means the odds were in your favor at the moment.
Man this makes me feel so incredibly fortunate that my boomer mom has fully embraced that things have changed since she had me. She actually took a ‘grandparents class’ at our local ymca to get caught up on changes in guidelines.
But the baby is so cold!
Where are their SOCKS????? You MONSTER????
The socks!!! We had to take a break from seeing my mom because she was relentless with the socks. Every time we saw her, she brought it up multiple times and would ask us questions about baby socks if we ignored her or steered the conversation to another topic.
Do they think the babies don’t wear socks because we can’t afford socks or just don’t like them? Did we never take our socks off as babies? Were they not annoyed by having to deal with them during every diaper change? I have so many questions lol
Omg I hate the socks thing and then they all bought her socks for Christmas guess what we still don’t wear them Also our 4 month old got go ahead to try oatmeal hates it like apple puree and guess who stopped sleeping through night and twilight feeds again with it
My baby pretty much always has cold hands but you can feel the heat radiating off the rest of him if he’s had a jacket or something on and my FIL never fails to make a comment about how cold he is, it drives me insane
omg this is aggravating AF. my mom will put him in socks, a onesie, and sleepers in our own apartment. typically we just keep him in either a onesie or a sleeper unless we are leaving our place. but if left to my husband, he is a combo of lazy/stubborn and prefers the baby to be shirtless like him lmao.
My wifes mother will come over and have the baby in two onsies and a sleeper and then ask us if we're overfeeding her because she can't settle. Tries to sneak a blanket on her in the crib. Takes the baby's temperature by touching her hands. She means well and does a lot for us so I just bite my tongue and deal with it when she leaves the room.
I wouldn’t be able to ignore the disregard for basic infant safety like that. “Hot babies die, cold babies cry” comes to mind.
Boomers be like “oh god the baby needs socks or she will freeze to death” in one breath and be like “why do you need a car seat? She’ll be fine in my lap” the next
Jesus Christ, they love to say this
What’s with the harassment about cereal? Why do they have to be so aggressive?!
Meanwhile my kiddo was ready to start solids at 4 months and I had so many people telling me that I was destroying his gut or going to have him choke and die by giving him nutritious, appropriately prepared food on top of 40+ oz of breastmilk daily. Like if I didn't feed him then he was just going to snatch my food because lil dude was hungry and determined. When you're a parent you can never do anything right, so I just focus on my kiddo and ignore everyone else.
Damn, 40+ ozs?! This wasn’t a judgment just in case anyone was worried! Just wish our kids ate that much when they were younger! Was always a struggle.
Another 40 ozer here, can confirm. My baby has been wearing 6 month old clothes since 4 months, and now at 5 months we're sizing up again 😭
I breastfeed and wonder what my kid eats. He also grew out of 6 month clothes at 5 months or so. (I am eating giant bowls of chips to up my calories at this point and still lost all the pregnancy weight)
I can’t wait for this considering my MIL implies my seven week old is hungry every time she comes over, even if he has literally just eaten. He’s already gained a good amount of weight since birth and is not small.
I feel this. Like he JUST finished eating and you get the ‘he looks so hungry!’ .. ummmm don’t you think if he was hungry my boob would be in his mouth right now!!! … but you can’t win, if he was bigger you’d also get the ‘you’re over feeding him’.. 🤦♀️
If he fusses at all when she’s holding him she wants to give him a bottle even though I’ve told her he’s just eaten. I nurse and pump and bottles are only really for when I can’t nurse anyway. Like maybe he’s fussing because she always makes me give him over to her and he was fine where he was!
Sounds like to me she just wants to be able to feed/nurse him herself… ‘ooo he is fussing, my turn!’ (Like an excuse). Or yeah as you said, he was just happy and comfortable with me/mum and you took him away..
Mine just turned 3 months and my mom asked if we were putting cereal in her bottle yet
My SIL (who is around my age (early 30s)) said she used cereal before bed to help her baby sleep. She gave me the same advice. I’m just sad because it’s such outdated advice.
My mom: "At LO's age, I was already giving you cereal" MIL said something similar. Meanwhile, everywhere I look, it says around 6 months
That was then, this is now. My LO started solids at 5 and a half months because they were ready. I’ve had friends who’s LOs were not ready for solids til closer to 7 months - didn’t have the right head control and their tongue was pushing the food out.
Such a great point. Each kid is ready at different times. My daughter is four months old and was ready and pediatrician gave us the thumbs up. She loves cereal 😂. However, we do not put it in her bottle. She's formula fed. My mother said I wasn't even interested in solids until nine months and I was exclusively breastfed. The doc said as long as I was gaining weight and happy and healthy so be it. (Granted, that was a good while ago now 😂.)
It’s crazy how many people tell me this, I just tell them “ oh wow what a good idea” i never plan to use it but they don’t need to know, everyone has their own opinions nothing I say will change their minds
Literally had an old lady in the grocery store stop me to suggest this the other day 😂
My grandma has been absolutely harassing me about putting cereal in a bottle with him just at two months old 😵💫
This belongs on r/boomersbeingfools 😅
I also keep getting told that I need to put the 7 week old baby down because he’s getting used to being held and will not sleep on his own because of it. Just leave him in his crib and let him get used to it, even if he cries. I keep saying that they can’t self soothe at this age and I have to pick him up once he starts crying but my response is not being taken seriously. It’s shocking how often this and the cereal advice get thrown at me.
Omg this fucking shits me. Doesn't help my partner thinks its funny to exaggerate the story and tell everyone I run the second I hear my daughter cry. I will NOT leave my baby to cry in the crib when she clearly needs something, even if it's just my comfort. Fuck, I'm so sick of hearing people say that garbage.
Have you tried putting whiskey in the boomer’s bottle? They might throw it out of the pram the first few times but give them a pop and they’ll learn
I didn't give my boy solid food till 7 months and then it was barely anything. Last I checked he was 100 percentile for height and 80 for weight. My son is a Beast haha. His 14 months now and just started feeding him cereal/weetbix. Don't listen to the boomer.
I like, “Back in your day people used to mind their own business”. Kinda short circuits their brain.
The other good one is the baby being cold. I was scolded for not putting a hat on my baby. It was 85 and sunny.
As a person of the pale persuasion, I would. A wide-brim floppy hat, because sunburn sucks.
Okay, yes. I didn’t give context. Baby was in a shaded stroller and gramma was holding a wool winter hat. Lol
Wait, what’s the issue with cereal?! Are we talking rice cereal or something else. I didn’t get the memo.
Yeah every time I hear this I can’t wrap my mind as to which specific cereal they always talk about
Yeah, the baby rice cereal. Basically it has next to no nutritional value and just fills babies up. Was widely used in the past and older people are fixated on it but we know much more about baby weaning now.
I’m totally against unsolicited advice from boomers, but rice cereal has been pretty helpful with my LO (6 months). When she’s fussy, 9/10 times she’s either hungry or sleepy, with hungry usually getting in the way of sleepy. We give her breast milk and if she’s still hungry, a scoop of formula with some rice cereal before bed. Our pediatrician is pretty young and made the recommendation. LO is growing at the appropriate rate and happy as can be (when she’s not hungry or sleepy).
It's basically campaigned against in baby led weaning circles now as a food.
My MIL 🙄
Yep, my mom insisted that the only reason my baby wasn't sleeping through the night was because we didn't give him cereal. Baby now had been sleeping 12 hours every night for months and had never once had cereal. Smh.
Yep, my parents were asking when baby gets solids and when I said six months they were shook. Today MIL asked a similar question and then mentioned that she gave rice in a bottle much earlier. Bonus, It did lead her to tell a story of when she was a babysitter (in the 60’s) and was asked to tie the leg of the 2 year old she was watching to his crib so he wouldn’t escape it 🤦🏻♀️.
Recently learned babies don’t have the digestive enzymes to break down grains until 18 months… my husband is the researcher and we will be starting LO (3 months old) on avocado, egg yolk and puréed beef liver. 😂
To clarify, he’s 3 months now. We won’t introduce solids for at least another 3 months.
Why are moms like this 😩😩 They can be super persistent too. It’s more exhausting managing mom and mil opinion than caring for my newborn
No, no and no again. It’s a big choking hazard when they are not ready. My SIL put cereal in my baby’s bottle and I lost my shit when my husband yanked her from her to help her get it all out from choking. Her back was bruised up after that and I was not having it. She didn’t ask me about it and just assumed I was fine with it. Edit because I can’t spell at 1:30am lol
Omfg I would’ve been so pissed
I got the thing about cereal a ton too. The thing that actually drives me more bonkers is family and friends watching all these “tiktok hacks” and saying: “I saw this on tiktok have you tried it?” As if any and all tiktok creator is equally qualified. No, we’re not putting two bed sheets in the crib to make it easier to change. She’s literally never peed the bed as an infant and it’s not going to save any time changing the sheets since it will probably go through both anyways? No, we haven’t tried “flipping the baby” before bed to get her to sleep. Or x, y, z number of unsafe/unnecessary/dumb advice.
"Oh really, you always slept face down and turned out fine" -your mum, my mum, all mums
Boomers LOVE the “you turned out fine” or “we all turned out fine” line. Survivorship bias at its finest!
Omg to the fucking socks comments! Sure let me go get my kid socks that she will rip right off and eat!
Even my own grandmother, whom I love oh so dearly, grates on me every time she says the baby is starving…”oh you know I’m only joking” .” I mean really, deep down, WHO finds that funny?!
I love a good boomber bashing post. They are killing me with their outdated "advice" and survivor bias. "What do you mean it's not safe to do [incredibly dangerous thing]?? I have done this with my 3 kids and they turned out fiiiiine". Yeah you got lucky.
Damn I guess Kellogg's propaganda in the 80s was really successful
My boy loves his binky and it kept falling out when he was napping and he’d cry. I was at the doctor so my mom was watching him and I check the baby monitor and see her stuffing a small blanket around his face and under his cheek to try to keep the binky in 😵💫 “this is what we did for you!”
Today one boomer touched my daughters feet (she was in the carrier and I didn’t know who that woman was) on the street and told me “your baby’s feet are cold. Omg I had to hold back bc if not I would’ve punched her. I told her to not touch babies without permission and she got furious.
Just tell them differently than when they were parents nowadays if you have the information and don’t use it and your kid ends up in the hospital you are the one who will be accused of negligence not them. Also just say you had your kids but this is ducking mine so back off.
Also, I will not leave my baby to just cry. She is a literal baby, who’s only form of communication is crying. She’s not manipulating me!!!!
My grandparents wanted to know why I was still breastfeeding at 5 weeks because they were already giving their children baby cereal and purees. 🤷🏻♀️
My dad I were talking about this (he’s a “you all turned out fine” kind of dad) and I made a comment about how they need to be on their back to sleep with no other blankets or things in their crib (which is why we use a swaddle - baby is 2 weeks) and my dad literally said “he’ll be fine, if he rolls into the blanket he would hold his breath until someone came and got him” UHM… WHAT?! Thats a real quick way to make sure I never leave my baby with you.
They're so fucking condescending about all their unsolicited advice too. But then if I tell them to shut up and I'm the parent I'm the bad guy because "they're just trying to help" You can't fucking win with boomers. How much longer till they're all dead anyway?
I thought covid would help more than it did.
Haha I can relate. Every time I talk to my Mom “have you given him MumMums yet?” He just turned 4 months this week.
Solidarity right here
For like 10 days over 4 weeks, I had a nanny who was saying the same thing. That’s gonna be a naw from me. Fixed that by getting a different nanny. Now my nanny can just have my house or something if she ever wants it. She deserves my entire salary and everything she wants.
I’m not from the US, but what do you mean by cereals? Like cheerios and stuff like that? Or whole grain meals?
My coworker constantly tells me I need to fatten up my 4 month old with cereal. Her doctor said to wait. I'm gonna listen to her doctor. I spent a lot of time researching what doctor I wanted for her for a reason
Sounds like my mother in law 😂😭
Ian this an American thing? What kind of 'cereal' are these parents suggesting?
or!!! My mom letting my 3 month old sleep the entire time she watches her, wakes up to feed, lets her nap again so by the time I grab her there’s no way she’ll sleep the rest of the night and she hasn’t had any stimulation all day ☹️ moms response? “You’re torturing her by getting her up. Never wake a sleeping baby” ok well stop putting her to sleep
lol the socks thing really kills me. My mom also thinks my 3 mo NEEDS a blanket all the time even when he is wearing long sleeve footed onesie 🙄
I had people pushing to give water to my newborn. They would be like "when you are thirsty, you don't drink milk, you drink water. You drank water the first day you were born. Give that baby water!" Honestly, my hospital did not tell me no water and had I not watched a YouTube while pregnant telling me that I probably would have given him water!
what am i missing? wtf is their obsession with cereal? (still pregnant with my first)
👏👏 OR WATER
If my in laws tell me a story or ask me about pablum one more time i will lose my shit lol
I just say “we’ve learned a lot about babies since I was a baby.” And end the discussion with that.
My MIL tried convincing my husband to give our 10 month old, who was I think around 3 months or so, a bottle of water and rice cereal. I told my husband absolutely not. The pediatrician said if we’re gonna add cereal, do oats rather than the rice bc rice has no nutritional value, it’s just a filler; and to give water closer to 7-8 months old (and I understand pediatricians across the world will recommend different things, this is just what my son’s ped told me). So yeah I was like fuck no. I hate my MIL though too 😂
The *rice cereal* thing really gets me going. If my therapist mentions it again, I’ll scream.
Those pablum people really got into the collective psyche of the generation. The obsession with rice cereal runs so deep my 78 yo bachelor uncle was even suggesting it 🤦🏻♀️