Baby being fussy when you are out and about
We all know that sometimes our babies will just have those moments where it feels like a meltdown, they just won’t stop crying. You, as their Mum, are spending night and day with them so you know the reason, maybe they’re overtired, maybe they’re hungry or they could even be teething but whatever it is you learn to identify the cries, differentiate and have your own ways and methods of fixing it and calming your baby down. Whatever about these moments at home, when it happens when you are out and about it can be really stressful!
Particularly if you’ve forgotten the soother, or there isn’t a handy place to feed the baby, either by breast or with the bottle. It happened to me once day when I had forgotten to bring a soother and left the “Ella’s Kitchen” crispy snacks at home so I had nothing to pacify the baby on the walk to creche to pick up my toddler! I knew Ellie was having a bad few days, I think she might have been going through a leap and in the stormy period. Some days nothing would pacify her and I remember the dread that this would happen when I was out and about and that people still stare at me like I don’t know how to manage or comfort my own child.
I did find when this happened to me, that ladies who are a bit older and maybe have their children reared and might have grandchildren of their own seem to find it hard to stand back when this is happening, maybe it is a generational thing. They would come forward and sympathise and try to determine what is wrong, which in theory and in their mind is helping and is coming from the right place, trying to help. But in reality, if you are the Mum, at your wits end and knowing that it’s just “one of those moments” it is the last thing you need. Mums should wear a T-Shirt “Do not engage, BACK AWAY! Leave me to it!” I felt like saying to this smiling stranger ‘I know how to handle my child and you making idle chitchat at me while my child is screaming is not helping the situation’! But obviously I couldn’t say that out loud as it would have been rude so I smiled and nodded and said “Yes, she is hungry” or “tired” or whatever came to my sleep deprived and foggy mind!
If I see another mum with a baby screaming or an unruly toddler who looks frazzled or overwhelmed, I never judge, that mum could be working with little-to-no sleep, the child could be teething or sick or could just be having a bad day! I give a sympathetic nod of “I’ve been there” and keep on walking and, unless the mum asks for my help, I let her handle it herself. Which she no doubt can and she doesn’t need me, a stranger, chatting to her taking her attention away when she is already juggling a lot and could be using that energy to sooth her child!
