holy judgement, Batman!

I cannot believe the amount of judgement there is in the world. Especially, for mothers. I took 2 of my littles out today to run some errands before our big adventure tomorrow. We managed to get everything we needed done, before noon. [yay us!] even snuck in some playtime and lunch in there. At our last stop, Mia started to fuss part-way through [we were at our holistic food market, getting snacks for tomorrow's car ride!]. Keep in mind, when Mia fusses..it's about as loud as a wimper. I wasn't stressing, I was doing the "shhhh baby girl" and rolling the cart around back and forth, trying to calm her. I took her out and was carrying her for a few mins, then we got to the check out and I put her back in her carseat [she's still in the bucket]. All eyes were on me, as I clipped my crying child back into her carseat, instead of going crazy trying to fix the problem. I'm paying for my few groceries and the lady at the cash goes " wow, what's wrong with your baby?" I said... " she's pooped through her clothes, is hungry and tired" . [perhaps...I was too specific?? lol] the look I got from her when I said that....could have killed me. She says - " oh my, well the bathrooms are right there, you should change her right away" . ....Thanks, tips. I smiled, and said thank you- but home is only a short drive away, I will change her there where it's easier than wrangling my busy 2yr old in their tiny bathroom. She watched me with disapproving eyes as I put my cart back in the corral, slung my 2yr old over my shoulder, my bag on my arm, purse on the other, and bucket seat with crying baby, in one hand. [new meaning to bag lady!?] .

Amazing how many looks I got from people, simply because my child was crying. Yes...I get it- baby cries are sad, pull at the heartstrings, etc. But babies can fuss for a few minutes without mama jumping, stressing, and running around like a chicken with her head cut-off- simply to calm baby. Granted- if Mia was screaming, tears streaming, hyperventalating,red crying- I would have grabbed my stuff from the car and changed her in the store.

Does wanting to be home [5min drive from there] where Manning would be safe, I could sit down to feed Mia without having a blanket covering her head, to change diapers...make me an awful mother??!