I always hated pacifiers and judged parents if they used them. I told my husband I never wanted a pacifier near our kid’s mouth.
Then I gave birth. Two days later our little angel (and everyone else!!) wanted to sleep. I couldn’t feed him to sleep because my breasts were sore, so we broke down and got a pacifier. (Thankfully, our kid was very good at breastfeeding, so we weren’t worried about this interfering with his meals).
This whole incident made me think about judging others: it’s never helpful. Everyone has their reasons for doing what they’re doing, and unless you understand all of them, you’re simply not seeing the whole picture. My sister used to say she stopped looking down on parents whose kids were throwing a wobbly in the supermarket after she had to deal with her kids melting down — I get that now.
Baby clothes are expensive! To add insult to injury, they never even wear some clothes because they grow so quickly. If you don’t have hand-me-downs or a network of moms willing to pass on stuff, we have had great success at op shops (or thrift stores as you call them in America).
