Mums being judged is terrible. But little do we see the after effects.

Before you start your keyboard campaign, think about the consequences. 

Last year, I, like most mothers, was shocked to read that a WA mum was asked to leave a clothing store for refusing to remove the bottle from her son’s mouth. The store blamed the incident on their strict no food or drink policy.

I read the article and felt sorry for poor Alissa. As a mum of a five-month-old – if someone asked me to remove it, I would react in a very similar manner. I would take out my smoking gun (my smartphone) and publicly bash the source of my anger.

Mothers are dealing with enough stress that we honestly just need the world to behave FOR 5 MINUTES!

And while you've heard of the outrage, this store has now closed due to the negativity that suffocated it out of business.  

I think this is really sad. This store has been open for 11 years, which to me means that the owner probably doesn’t know much about social media and its relentless power.

We are constantly going into bat for mums who are being judged for their choices.

A mother changes a baby’s nappy on the café table and is asked not to – HOW DARE THEY?

A mother is asked to leave a store after not adhering to their drink policy – LET’S GET THEM SHUT DOWN.

Can we take a minute to look at this from the other side of the coin? What if you are the person sitting next to the mum in the café? You don’t have kids; you don’t understand that most places, very inconveniently, do not have change tables in their bathrooms. You don’t know the struggles that mum faced just getting out of the house to visit that café. You are just trying to enjoy your Chicken Parma minus a side of baby faeces.

Let’s look at this from the shop owner’s point of view. The one who probably no longer has a business. Or job. Or income.

They probably had people in their store regularly swishing about their frozen cokes whilst they held their chest hoping that nothing was ruined in the process. We don’t know their struggles. They could be struggling to make ends meet because of the influx of online shopping, they could be dealing with a family crisis. They probably didn’t see the difference between a kid with a bottle and a teenager with a can of red bull. In no way did they imagine that this could have sky rocketed out of control as it has.

We should show as much support for the clueless as we do for the (super) mums.

I would have loved to have seen a heartfelt apology from this shop to the mum and perhaps inviting her and her son back for a make-up hug (with a $50 voucher thrown in). They don’t need to apologise for the act, as they have every right to enforce their food and drink policy. What they need to apologise for, is causing a (great) mum distress for asking her something that they clearly didn’t understand would be so upsetting.

I can’t help but wonder if they were ever given the opportunity to apologise?

Did the pitch forks come out far too quickly to give them a chance?

Want more? Try these:

A mum shamed for bottle feeding her baby.

However you feed your baby – we support you.