I'm not a bad mom... I think...

Twice this week, I have been made to feel like I am a bad mother.

Once by a friend, and once by an acquaintance.

Neither one of these people did it intentionally... Well, I think the acquaintance might have, but the impression I got from that person is that they are generally pretty critical of everything anyway.

But it still hurts. This isn't the first time either. Every once in a while, I'll have someone say "you let your daughter have that candy bar? Do you know how much sugar is in there?!" or "You allow your daughter to watch Sesame Street? Well, I don't believe in allowing children to watch television until they are at least 5!" or, "You should really cloth-diaper, it's terrible to make a baby walk around in a paper diaper!"

I know these people generally mean well, and most are just trying to offer advice. Some of these people just can't believe that I kind of let Savannah dictate how her day works. I never did any sort of sleep training with her. I let her sleep when she was tired, eat when she was hungry, play when she wanted to, and relax when she needed to. As a result, she placed herself on a pretty good schedule (until daylight savings showed up...) and I'm happy with that. 

The truth is, I don't feed her exclusively organic foods. I don't make her wear clothes half of the time. I let her watch 'Wreck it Ralph' a million times a week. I let her eat marshmallows and chips for snack time. I let her be noisy and crazy and wild in public places.

And you want to know why I'm ok with this?

I'm ok with this because she is healthy, and incredibly smart. She's more social than 95% of other kids I know, and she adapts to new situations as if it's the easiest thing in the world. She is compassionate and considerate. She's creative and independent. She's energetic and wild, but I wouldn't want her any other way. And believe it or not, when I let her make the decision of what she wants for snack time, she will even choose carrots, apples and cheese over marshmallows 2 out of 3 times.

And she is the HAPPIEST toddler I have ever met. And as long as she is happy, I am ok with her watching Curious George to help her fall asleep at night. Because that's my parenting style, and it works for her, and it works for me, and it doesn't work for everyone else. 

Yeah... So there.