Mean girls. They’re everywhere. And they’re watching us, judging us, and waiting to pounce with their passive aggressive comments.Â
Just ask UK resident Joanne Flynn, who received a rude letter from a mystery woman scolding the busy mum for her parenting choices.
Balancing your career and your children is tough enough without having to be criticised for your choices. But some people just can’t help but put on their judgy pants and make mums feel like shit, no matter what they do.
Take Sheila, for example, a mean girl who turned into a mean woman who clearly sucks at being a decent human being and decided to sent this mum-shaming letter to her neighbour
How would you react if you received this?
‘There is no point in having kids for someone else to bring [them] up’
Sheila starts by admitting that she’s a creepy stalker who watches the family. This in itself would be enough to send me wandering the neighbourhood in search of this mysterious lady.
But then it gets worse as Sheila belittles Joanne for sending her two-year-old daughter to daycare for far too many hours each day.
She tells the mum that her “baby” is distressed (which she can clearly tell by watching the family through her window), that Joanne isn’t thinking about her daughter, that the child doesn’t like going to daycare and that she is still tired and shouldn’t be getting up that early.
“This is so disturbing for a baby as they only want their mum,” she writes. “You have missed so much I can tell you that… you can never get these years back, and someone else has had all those years.”
(Anyone else feel like throwing a shoe at Sheila yet?)
Then Sheila decides to be even more awful by adding her own ‘expert’ opinion on the matter, followed by evidence from a medical professional and (UGH) numerous studies.
“Have you read the research on nurseries, and how the long hours affect children mentally and emotionally,” she writes.
Seriously, who the hell asked you, Sheila?
Go away, Sheila
Sheila ends the letter by praising her own parenting ethics and telling Joanne, “there is no point in having kids for someone else to bring him or her up”.
I feel a massive eye roll coming on…
Passive aggressive letters are NOT the way to go
A very stunned Joanne shared the letter through a Facebook page, asking for advice on how she should react. Because, despite what Sheila assumes, Joanne does care about her daughter. She also points out that having an actual face-to-face conversation would have probably been the decent thing to do.
But clearly Sheila, who seems to know everything about parenting, doesn’t know a thing about decency.
Captain Judgypants strikes again!Â
This isn’t the first rude letter a mum has received from an anonymous neighbour. Check out this mum’s response when a neighbour complained about her noisy kids. Or how about this mum’s reaction after a neighbour suggest she keep her child inside?Â
As far as parenting goes, there will always be “Sheilas”. You’ll find them lurking in the background, telling us how we should be raising our kids and waiting for the perfect moment to sneak from their homes and post mean letters to our mailboxes. Or our inboxes. Or our Facebook pages.
To those Sheilas, let me be the first to say, kindly f*ck off. And take you snarky, smug, know-it-all attitudes with you.
We mums have enough on our plates without your passive aggressive rubbish to deal with.
Signed, All Mums Everywhere
