At Least I’m Not THAT Bad…

Not the finest parenting moment…

C’mon parents, we all know this is our standard.  As long as there is someone else out there that is screwing up this parenting gig worse than we are (or so it at least appears), we can feel pretty good about ourselves.  For me, the most recent self-righteous vindication came while watching the 4.8.12 episode, Mystery Date, of Mad Men.  Betty and Henry ran off to God-knows-where and left the kids with their step-grandmother, Pauline.  Now, Pauline is an entertaining character, but I would NEVER leave my children with her.  There is a definite something-is-off-but-I-can’t-put-my-finger-on-it vibe about her.  Unfortunately, it was during Pauline’s watch that the news story of the 1966 Chicago student nurse massacre broke.  Sally (12 yr. old little girl) is rightfully terrified and seeks comfort from Grandma.  She asks why the nursing students let the man in the door to begin with.  Pauline gave the oh-so-reassuring and age-appropriate answer, “Well they probably didn’t think he could rape all of them” (paraphrasing here).  Pauline then literally caps off the night by giving little Sally a sleeping pill and then taking one herself (ummm…what about the baby upstairs??).  The scene pictured above is what Betty returned to the next morning…awesome.  So yeah, I have definitely moments when I suck as a parent, but at least I’m not that bad, right?!

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.

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