50 Pieces of Stellar Advice New Moms Are Dying to Receive

You know how sometimes you see a struggling mom and don’t just want to say the same old boring stuff? Stuff like “How can I help?”, or “Here, let me take your baby so you can get a break?”.

Well, don’t worry, because I’ve put together this list of other stuff you can say. And if you want to come up with your own ideas, just follow one of these general rules:

• Make sure you state the obvious
• Whenever possible, compare their difficult baby to your easy baby
• Ensure you place at least a little bit of blame on the parents

As long as your comment incorporates one of these elements, you can rest assured you’re on the right track.

Following are 50 little gems that I’ve actually heard from parents. Be sure to add your best advice at the end of this post!

1. “I think you should ask yourself if you can handle breastfeeding.”

2. “Your baby is miserable because you’re miserable.”

Because surely it can’t be the other way around.

3. “Here, let me put my finger in your mouth to see if you’ll stop crying.”

Thanks random stranger.

4. “The reason he’s so fussy is because you’re too tense and should relax.”

5. “It’s good for babies to cry, it strengthens their lungs.”

6. “Maybe with the next one, you’ll just let him get used to noise while he’s sleeping.”

7. “You should teach her to sleep when you’re out and about.”

No thanks, I’ve loved being confined to my home the past 8 months!

8. “You should work on your expectations; all babies cry.”

9. “You’re spoiling him when you respond to him when he cries; he’s manipulating you and you’re allowing it.”

Why didn’t I see this before? Bad baby!

10. “She’s picking up on your anxiety.”

11. “Maybe she’s hungry.”

Oh! Are you supposed to feed them?

12. “Have you prayed for your baby?”

13. “You’re a new mother. All babies are like this. You’ll get into the swing of motherhood soon enough.”

14. “If I had to deal with her everyday, she’d be in daycare.”

15. “You’re a stay at home mom. This is your job. You should be better at handling this alone.”

16. “Speak to your health visitor because you seem to feel a strong need to hold your baby when he cries.”

17. “Weird, all babies like the car. I mean, we’d put our baby in the car and he’d go right to sleep.”

Oh, cool, thanks, I didn’t realize all babies like the car! It must be a coincidence that my baby screams every time we get in one.

19. “I guess WE were lucky that we got such a great boy on our first try.”

20. “We told you that your first two kids were so good that you shouldn’t tempt fate. Looks like he’s making up for all the easiness you had before.”

21. “It’s probably something in your breastmilk.”

22. “What did mommy and daddy do to you? Are they big ol’meanies?”

23. “You seem like you’d be such a natural with a baby…I wonder why it’s so hard for you?”

24. “Maybe he was a wet diaper.”

I KNEW I was forgetting something the past 6 months!

25. “Your son’s psyche is damaged. What did you do to him?”

26. “You caused his colic by crying in front of him because of your postpartum depression.”

27. “You should look into seeing a child psychologist.”

“So little 4 month old baby, what’s brought you in today?”

28. “It’s just colic. You need to suck it up and toughen up.”

29. “Yeah, we were up twice last night… sorry to hear you had a rough night, too.”

30. “Looks like somebody needs to be fed!”

31. “How are you going to cope with two when you can’t cope with one?”

Said by a GAP sales associate.

32. “I’ll try to REALLY look after myself during pregnancy so that my baby doesn’t turn out to be like yours.”

33. “ALL babies love the stroller.”

34. “I feel sorry for you. My baby was never like this.”

35. “Just give him formula, put him in his own bed, and let him cry it out.”

36. “You could probably handle this better if you were younger.”

37. “Treasure every moment because one day you’ll miss these days.”

38. “I’m so glad I have an easy baby.”

Me too. I haven’t slept in 3 months, and my baby screams so loud my ears bleed, and my marriage is falling apart, and I haven’t spent time alone with my other kids since the baby born….but the thing that makes me so happy is that you have an easy baby.

39. “You’re too quiet when she’s sleeping. Resume normal activities while asleep so she gets used to the noise.”

40. “Let her cry, she’ll learn.”

41. “He cries like that because you don’t put him down enough.”

42. “The reason she can’t fall asleep on her own is because of all the sleep props.”

Because it can’t be that I used the sleep props because she wouldn’t fall asleep without them.

43. “This is why WE established a routine from day 1.”

We chose not to do a routine as we enjoy the excitement of never knowing when our baby will eat or sleep.

44. “When I have a baby, we’re not going to change our lifestyle for him. He needs to fit into our lives.”

45. “The reason he can’t fall asleep on his own is because you’ve never let him try.”

Oh darn, so all those times he almost fell asleep all alone in his crib, I shouldn’t have jolted him awake so I could rock him to sleep?”

46. “Maybe if you relaxed a bit he’d calm down too.”

47. “Have you tried _________?”

Remember, the more obvious the better.

48. “When my kids were little, they knew I wouldn’t stand for tantrums; they had one, and then never again.”

I, on the other hand, LOVE tantrums, so I totally let my kids have as many as they wanted.

49. “You just need to put her on a schedule and she’ll know what’s expected of her.”

50. And my personal favorite….”Aren’t all babies high needs?”

 

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy finding out the 9 Causes of Colic, Fussiness and the High Need and Spirited Behaviour.

What advice would you add to this list?

 

Image courtesy of Nate Grigg under CC 2.0