Bad mother alert

I've had a few 'incidents' recently that deserve to be mentioned. First one:

Jason and I finally took baby Silas for his first hike! (It's about time, considering his name means 'man of the forest' afterall!). So, as most parents know, it took a bit of finesse, timing, luck, and coordination to get him out the door and make sure he would sleep in the car on the way to the hike (since awake silas + carseat = no fun for parents). We got there (phew) and he had slept the whole way. I whipped out lunch in due time and gave him a little feed in the back of our very functional mini-va* er, I mean cuv (car utility vehicle). We bundled him all up in two sleepers and our great go-go baby wrap slapped onto Jason's chest. (Btw, great investment because J can truly experience what I felt like for 9 months carrying a person on the front of my torso). And presto, as we started walking along our favourite buntzen lake trail whamo- he was asleep! (Point 1 for mommy and daddy).

So we thoroughly enjoyed our almost 3 hour walk around this lake. It felt like a date- with baby sleeping soundly with his little 'bee' hat on and us chatting away. Minding our own business (while pleasantly greeting passersby) we kept debating 'hat on' or 'hat off.' Sometimes it would seem really warm and since Silas was bundled all close up to Daddy it was 17 degrees, he seemed plenty warm enough....so at a few points we took off the hat so his head could get a bit of a breeze since his cheeks look kinda flushed.

Well. We passed a lady on the path who gave us this very disapproving look and said "babies should ALWAYS wear a hat," as she walked past us. Not only did she give us that look, but said that in the most condescending voice EVer. THEN as we kept walking, feeling as though we'd been slapped in the face, she said ANOTHER comment something to the effect of "shame on you."

I have never felt so judged and speechless at the same time. Who? What the? What just happened here? Bad mommy, bad (but even though apparently my child's entire health and well-being was apparently at stake at that moment, I wanted to almost not put the hat back on just to spite her).

Incident #2.

We were back at the car, still reeling and we had put Silas in the trunk, lying on his back so he could kick for awhile and enjoy his little self before we put him back again into the dreaded car seat. A lady walked clear across the parking lot and came over and started cooing and ooing at Silas and touching him. WOAH lady. Am I a bad mom that it kind of freaks me out a bit when perfect strangers touch my son all over? I mean, where have their hands been? Did they use the public pit toilets and there was no soap and so they just used water... ?? Is it bad I want to offer people a mask and hand sanitizer before they enter Silas' zone? I never really had strangers 'rub my belly' although, when people did, it didn't really bother me. But THIS does. Shouldn't people ask? Am I a bad mommy for not wanting people to goo and gaah and touch my perfectly clean and non-contaminated little boy?

Ugh. Parenting. Since when does it open invitation for any and all opinions and since when does that give people liberality to touch and coddle my son? I guess I should lighten up a bit. Maybe I'm a bit cranky from lack of sleep (actually, I KNOW I'm cranky from lack of sleep).

before Incident #2

Before Incident #1