Going to the polls

Whenever I think of Election Day, I have memories of one of the most obvious MomFail moments I witnessed Pre-T.  I'd say it was before I had a kid of my own and learned not to judge -- but well...not in this case.  So, I reached back into my email archives to find the story word-for-word that I shared at the time. Hopefully it's still as funny now as it was two years ago!

Date: Wed, Nov 3, 2010

So I have a funny story to share that makes me feel better about my as-of-now-non-existent parenting skills. No matter what we DON’T know, we still know more than this lady did!

I went to vote yesterday after work. Apparently, there was some fire in Houston where voting machines got burnt up in storage, so Houston took some of Austin’s voting booths, so my voting place had a pretty long line. We’re waiting on line, and this lady comes out with her adorable little baby. I’m guessing 8 months old, but of course, I don’t know anything much about babies at this point, so I’m not sure. She could hold her head up and was totally aware, but was still an infant for sure, and still had no hair, etc. But she was dressed in pink tights, a little skirt, and had on a lightweight tank undershirt. Her mom was carrying her – and the baby’s adorable little baby cardigan, that had little pink do-dads on it. And her mom was totally immaculately dressed, cute black sweater cardigan (it was cold last night!), adorable all around, and pretty. The mom, finished with her voting, walks to the door, where we are all waiting on line, and exclaims to the baby “Oh no! It’s raining outside! What are we going to do!” you know, just chatting with the baby the way moms do. So she puts the baby down on the bench, and it appears as though she’s going to get the baby ready to go outside in the chilly rain – by putting the cardigan on her, so she has something covering her body. No, the mom puts the baby down on the bench, in order to put the baby cardigan on her own HEAD, to keep her hair from getting wet. I kid you not. She puts the baby cardigan on her head, picks up her baby (dressed for summer still) and heads out into the pouring rain. Really?  So I am kind of just watching this, wondering if I’m the only one on this massive line that has an issue with this….and the murmurs start traveling down the line, as people are going “Oh my goodness! God forbid my HAIR get wet! My baby doesn’t need to keep warm, my hair looks too good!” and “People who are that unaware shouldn’t have kids” etc.

So regardless of what I don’t know about parenting at this point, I know that if I don't wear my own baby's clothing on my head to keep my hair dry, no matter how good I might look that day, when my poor baby is going to be bare-skinned outside in the cold and wet night.... I will be a parenting success :)

Story still has the same effect on me. A cringe and a chuckle.  How about you?