No parent wants to raise a spoiled brat who expects everything to be handed to them on a silver platter, which is why so many friends and even strangers approached this mom and accused her of spoiling her child after they saw her doting on her baby at all times.
Like any mother, Kelly Dirkes just wants to make sure that her children know how loved they are, but everyone thought her constant spoiling would keep them from ever becoming independent. Usually, Dirkes ignored those comments, however, when a complete stranger criticized her for spoiling her baby while she was shopping in Target, she decided to let the world know why she worked so hard to ‘spoil’ her kids.
“Dear Woman in Target- I’ve heard it before, you know. That I ‘spoil that baby’. You were convinced that she’d never learn to be ‘independent’. I smiled at you, kissed her head, and continued my shopping. If you only knew what I know. If you only knew how she spent the first ten months of her life utterly alone inside a sterile metal crib, with nothing to comfort her other than sucking her fingers,” Dirkes wrote in a post to Facebook that has now gone viral.
“If you only knew what her face looked like the moment her orphanage caregiver handed her to me to cradle for the very first time–fleeting moments of serenity commingled with sheer terror. No one had ever held her that way before, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do. If you only knew that she would lay in her crib after waking and never cry–because up until now, no one would respond.
“If you only knew that anxiety was a standard part of her day, along with banging her head on her crib rails and rocking herself for sensory input and comfort,” She continued. “If you only knew that that baby in the carrier is heartbreakingly ‘independent’ –and how we will spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years trying to override the part of her brain that screams ‘trauma’ and ‘not safe’.”
“If you only knew that that baby now whimpers when she’s put down instead of when she is picked up. If you only knew that that baby “sings” at the top of her lungs in the mornings and after her nap, because she knows that her chatter will bring someone to lift her out of her crib and change her diaper. If you only knew that that baby rocks to sleep in her Mama’s or her Papa’s arms instead of rocking herself.”
“If you only knew that that baby made everyone cry the day she reached out for comfort, totally unprompted… ‘Spoiling that baby’ is the most important job I will ever have, and it is a privilege. I will carry her for a little while longer–or as long as she’ll let me–because she is learning that she is safe. That she belongs. That she is loved.”
Do you think this mom is justified for ‘spoiling’ her baby? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and please SHARE this with a special mom on Facebook.
[Featured image credit: Facebook/Kelly Dirkes]
Everyone Told Mom She Spoils Her Baby, But Her Reason Is Heartbreaking is an article from: LifeDaily