Baby Opinion Speaking Syndrome

B.O.S.S.

It's a poorly documented, but very real problem, affecting any woman of any age.  It's insidious nature means that people of any race, religion, creed or colour can become overtaken by the symptoms of BOSS.  BOSS usually presents at first with an obsession with reading parenting magazines and books.  From there, this disease takes hold and spreads to mother's groups, blogs (such as this) and constant facebook posting.  Due to easy transmission, BOSS has practically taken over mums around the globe, causing them to not only compete with one another on the "quality" of their parenting choices, but also to earbash each other with their personal opinions.  At it's worst, BOSS has been known to cure the incurable friendship, and break parenting groups apart. . .

Ok, so maybe it's not a real disease, but I totally think (myself included) that when a woman becomes a mother, she gets a certificate of BOSSiness, valid for eternity.  It's not necessarily something she wanted, or needed, but she gets it.  It's a part of the hormonal mess that is motherhood.  All of a sudden, even though you may have never or never will experience some of the things you seem overly concerned with (breast feeding/formula feeding, smacking, bedtime practices, food for toddlers etc etc - trust me, the list goes on and on and on and onnnnn) you are THE expert with THE opinion to be known.  Even the most even tempered mums have at least one topic that they're keen to "share" their knowledge about.  The worst offenders, however, seem to be the older generation, who have literally got ALL the answers, despite newer research, studies and scientific proof that they are indeed wrong.

Oh, and don't bother trying to tell a mother she is wrong.  You'll probably get a lot more than you bargained for.

So.  What is my point??  My point is this:  opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one (yes, that line is plagiarised..).  Experience, however, is not as common, nor is the poorly named "common sense".  The latter is surprisingly rare in fact... And even though the dominating factor in all of this is the children,  the child itself varies greatly in innumerable ways.  Something might be ideal, in an ideal situation, with the ideal parents and the ideal child.. but basically, that scenario is about as likely to occur as the moon turning red and falling into the ocean.. Get my point?  It's fine to have an opinion.  Ok to express it.  But when someone (another mother perhaps) disagrees, or chooses to ignore your point of view, don't be offended.  She's just got a case of BOSS that's about as bad as yours!!

A. xo