Grocery Shopping. OR Stop Judging the Judgers.

I will admit that while I am grocery shopping, my 2 small children are generally crawling all over the cart, rather being strapped neatly in.

And I've noticed a few times lately the looks I get from older women who are worried that my child is going to fall out of the cart while I am reaching for a giant box of diapers and seemingly not paying attention. (Okay, one time I was talking on the phone and browsing through clearance leather gloves,  but I WAS also paying attention to my child).

My gut reaction to those looks of concern is to think, "Stop judging me! I have spent nearly every second of my life for the last 4.5 years with these children, I think I know their motor skills and behavioral patterns well enough to know when they are actually in danger of falling out of the cart! And furthermore, have you been grocery shopping with these little monkeys? I HAVE to multitask, or I would be spending all my time in the grocery store wrangling them, and never putting anything in my cart." Yes, I get defensive.

I was thinking about this scenario last night and realized that I was the one judging.  Maybe that old woman really was thinking ill thoughts about me and what a lousy mother I must be, but maybe she wasn't.  Maybe she is just a woman with a mothering heart who saw what appeared to be a child in danger of falling out of a cart onto the hard floor and was concerned.  

That was just a little eye-opening for me, to realize that even if I wasn't doing anything wrong in the first place, I need to stop judging people who I perceive to be judging me.  Hopefully this realization will help me not get so rattled by the looks I get from people as I heard my monkeys through the grocery aisles.