Please stop belittling parents of small children

Recent outings with our 3-year-old daughter have made us aware a counter culture is alive and well than that of the accepting, open and supportive Olympia citizens we usually run into.

To the women at the Women’s March who voiced your disapproval over our parenting choice to keep our daughter safe during the initial crush as the March started, and for which we felt terrible as she so vocally dissented. In reply to your derisive remarks, we did not deserve your censorship of our efforts to share family time while keeping our daughter safe and out of possible harm. The irony that this was at a march to support and promote awareness of women’s issues was not lost on us either.

And to the three customers and REI employee who expressed dislike in one fashion or another for our daughter’s presence in the store on March 25, your passive aggressive shaming of two parents who simply wanted a morning out to run some errands together was unnecessary. We know the “risk” we take every time we attempt such an outing and never want to be “those parents.” Because, as you so insightfully shared amongst each other, we do often cringe at the loudness of our daughter’s dissent, but we can’t always shop without her, nor do we want to.

We love this town we currently call our home, but the “joking” judgments and unwarranted shaming is something our family can do without.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 10:05 AM with the headline "Please stop belittling parents of small children."