During a trip to the grocery store this morning, I saw something that really irritated me. I try my darndest not to judge parenting choices of other parents. However; there are some basic care decisions that well, seem obvious.

This morning as I was going into the grocery store, I saw another mother carrying a child (who appeared to be 5 or 6yo) into the store. The child was dressed in a fairy/ballerina costume and had no shoes, leggings, stockings, and was also not wearing a jacket. When I left my home for the grocery store (which is 5min away), it was 35 degrees outside. Granted, the mother wasn’t wearing a coat either so maybe they’re just warm-blooded. But my gut feeling was that this child threw a major fit and refused to put any of the above obviously required clothing on prior to leaving home. And the reason I have that feeling is because I heard this child throw a temper tantrum in the store. And the mother immediately gave into the whims of the child. Yes, I have given in on occasion, sometimes it’s just not worth it, but my children rarely throw fits in public because they KNOW we will go home and they will lose privileges as well as whatever we were there to buy.

It wasn’t so much the behaviour that I found appalling, but the lack of warm clothing on the child. UGH! She should have at least had stockings and shoes on – but barefoot? At 5 or 6? And being carried into a store? Ummmm – NO.

Ok, I’m through Venting. Thanks for reading. I’ll return to the normal inspirational stuff tomorrow, I promise. 😉

I added a couple of pages  – Senator Contact Information and a Katie Corcoran page. In doing so, the theme I was using unfortunately blocked the pages that were listed at the top and I was not able to fix the problem EXCEPT to get a new theme. The colours chosen are to reflect warmth and sunshine. I miss the picture too – I had found it very relaxing and meaningful. I will continue to work with the other theme to see if I can get it up and running without blocking the text of the new pages. For now, this is the new look. Hope you like it!

I want to thank all of you who have been following my journey and have either shared it with others or found it helpful in your own lives. I had planned this post for 2500 but this morning I found I have surpassed 2500 hits by nearly 200. (see what I get for taking the weekend off?!?!)

Seriously – I appreciate your readership and knowing that others are gaining insight into PPD and pregnancy after PPD means the world to me. When I started, the blog was more for me to vent and express how I was feeling – and also to share with others – but I certainly wasn’t expecting a lot of readers and am quite surprised that in just six short months I have had 2500 people read bits and pieces of my blog. That’s 2500 more people with whom I have shared my story.

I encourage other survivors to speak up, survivors who are already speaking up to continue doing so – there is strength to be found in your stories and what were your dark places. By sharing these things with other women we can not only pass the wisdom we have learned the hard way onto others but we can also pull them up out of their dark places just as we were pulled up and out by others. Postpartum Depression does not have to be suffered alone – and I am truly blessed to be able to help other women find their light at the end of their tunnel. It is an ability I do not take lightly at all and for which I am grateful.