Fat Mom I Met Last Weekend (Bad mothering, of course) Last weekend my husband and I went to a street festival connected to his work--he had clients there and the company paid for our tickets. W had a couple of extras so invited my husband's good friend and his wife, whom I'd never met, and with whom our friend A) has a toddler; and B) is having marital problems. Turns out the wife is a cow. Husband and I were both shocked--I'd never met her before but Husband has, and he told me later she's gained weight in the few months since he last saw her. She was not especially friendly to me. Because they had their toddler with them (and you know your Dorothy loves babies), I was trying to be extra friendly and helpful, you know, I'll hold the stroller while you go get food, I'll walk here to block the sun from the eyes of the baby you failed to bring a hat or visor for, I'll keep an eye on her while you watch the presentation going on...and of course, which ended up happening several times, I will chase the toddler through the crowd and scoop her up while you are still struggling to get your fat ass up off the curb. And she (the wife) smiled and said thanks and all, but she wasn't friendly at all and didn't respond to any of my attempts to engage her (we were there as a group, after all, and her husband is my friend, too). But what really impressed me--not in a good way--was the way she handled the baby (who was an adorable, cheeky little thing, though of course not as adorable as my little "niece" next door). First, the baby was in her stroller with a baby doll and that was it. No other toys, nothing to amuse her. All the mother did the whole time we were there, every time the baby got bored, was shove food at her. All to eat with her fingers--which is normal for toddlers, of course, but I mean the mother didn't feed her anything or share any food with her on her fork or spoon, she just stuck it all in front of the baby. As we waited in lines and such, she stayed behind the stroller the whole time; no stepping in front of it to interact with Baby. I was the one who took a step to the side to talk to Baby, smile at Baby, take Baby's hand when she reached out to me.  I mean, I get that you can't interact every minute and all. But we were there for over two hours, and some of those lines were long, and it wasn't until I finally said, "She's reaching for me, can I take her out?" that the Fat seemed to think that maybe just shoving food in front of her toddler wasn't enough entertainment for that long a period of time. In fairness, she did hold Baby (we all did, but of course Baby preferred her mom and then her dad) and put shoes on her so Baby could stand and walk around a little. But this is the worst part. Baby being, you know, a toddler, she wanted to sit on the ground. She'd crouch down and put her hands on the ground. She'd been eating with those hands the whole time. They were sticky. Her face was sticky. And the entire time we were there, her mother did not once clean her face or hands. Baby is in the stroller eating, Baby is out of the stroller literally, at one point, playing in the sandy dirt, letting it flow through her fingers and throwing it in the air (it was adorable). Then Baby is eating again. With her fingers. Wife looks at her husband at one point not long before we left and says, "She's going to need a bath, she's filthy," and I'm thinking, She wouldn't be so filthy if you'd, you know, clean her up a little. Like, where are the baby wipes?  I don't think I left the house for more than a quick run to the convenience store or to drop off/pick up Older at school without baby wipes until my youngest was about four, and that's typical of every mom I've ever known. Your kid is sticky and dirty, she's been playing in dirt, and you don't wipe her hands with even a dry napkin or something before you let her eat with those same hands? She's got sticky patches of dirt and muck all over her sweet little face, her little hands are sticky and mucky...are you not going to try to clean her at all? Even just lick your hands and rub hers clean with them (which I resorted to once or twice when mine were little and we'd run out of wipes or whatever), since you apparently didn't even bring baby wipes when you traveled several hours to a street festival with your child who is still in diapers? What is the matter with you, do you not even care that your child is filthy? You're not even going to make any kind of effort, you're just going to let her get dirtier and dirtier? And of course, I couldn't try to do it, because that's not the kind of thing you can do with the child of someone you don't know well. My little "niece," whose mom is my best friend and who I see and spend time with several times a week, sure, I can wipe her face and hands or grab a tissue for her to blow her nose or whatever without even asking or saying anything, but to do it to a stranger's child seems like judgment. So Husband and I just watched that poor sweet little girl get dirtier and dirtier, more and more bored, while her mom just sat there--she complained about standing for so long a few times--and ate and barely spoke to any of us. So that was a street festival with a fat: she ate a lot, she barely smiled, she sat down whenever possible and complained when she couldn't, she ignored her baby for long stretches of time and just kept shoving food at her (waaaaay more food than a baby that age needs or should have), and she didn't even seem to think it might be a good idea to try to clean the sticky food residue and dirt off her baby before the baby ate again with those same sticky hands. I shudder to think what life that poor baby has in store in future. SMH.  tl;dr Unfriendly fat ignores her own baby, gives it food instead of paying attention to it, and allows it to be filthy and eat with filthy hands like it's NBD. Not the greatest or most interesting story in the world, I know, but I'm still kind of annoyed by it and thought it was at least appropriate to share here even if it's not fascinating or anything.