Mum hits back at stranger who 'mum-shamed' her for being on her phone while out with her toddlers

It’s a hard life being a mum.

Not do mothers have to deal with the actual parenting part, but on top of that, they have to deal with unwelcome ‘advice’ and criticism from complete strangers.

Yay …

One mum hit back in an epic post - which has since gone viral - after she was "mum-shamed" for being on her phone while out shopping with her two toddlers.

Taking to Facebook she wrote: "To the man at Costco today who glanced over at me on my phone while my babies were fussing and felt the need to say, 'You see these babies? They fuss like that because they want your attention. Maybe you should get off of your phone and give them your attention.'

"First of all, I had no idea the toddler saying, 'Mama, pizza, mama, pizza' over and over and the baby-making pre-cry warnings to alert me that if we don’t move soon he’s going to lose it wanted my attention. Thank you for that brilliant analysis of the situation.

"Secondly," she continued, "I had been in the Membership line for 15 minutes already. I pulled out books, snacks, patty cake, and even took to creepily pointing out items in buggies as customers left the store to entertain them.

"Thirdly, you had been in the Refunds line next to me for a total of two minutes or else you would have seen the smiles and laughs and interaction."

The mother then went on to explain how she was actually on her phone in an attempt to help defuse her toddlers’ brewing "meltdown".

"Lastly, after 15 minutes, these babies got a bit fussy. And on the meltdown scale, they were barely even at a 1," she wrote. "Sensing the meltdown brewing, I took out my phone, downloaded the Costco app and texted my husband to ask what our login is in an attempt to just get my membership card on my phone. Because I ran out of tricks and my kids ran out of patience and now my goal was to just get us out of this line as quickly as possible before they released the kraken."

The mother then sarcastically "thanked" the stranger for their "parenting advice".

"But thank you for your parenting advice," she wrote. "Thank you for taking the time out of your day to shame a young mother with two tiny children. Thank you for seeing a stressful moment and deciding, 'I think I’ll make this worse for her.'"

She then gave some advice of her own on how people should treat parents while out in public.

"Everyone, if you see a mother (or father) with young children out in public ANYWHERE, assume she is stressed out. Assume she is trying her damnedest to get through the situation. Assume this is the very last place she wants to be. Assume she’d rather be home cuddling, playing, running around with her babies. Assume she probably has had no sleep since her first child was born. Assume she is hungry because her toddler decided he wanted extra eggs this morning so she gave him her breakfast in addition to his own. And if you have nothing kind or supportive to offer her, please mind your own business.

"Our babies are healthy, our babies are happy (despite the fact that they are not currently pleased with standing in line at Costco), and our babies are loved fiercely by us. And for the love of God, our babies can wait 2 minutes while we try to solve a problem on your phone."

Commenters on the post were quick to praise the mother, with many agreeing with her message and even sharing their own encounters with getting "mum-shamed" by strangers.