Do you have good friends who are childless, that you eventually stopped talking to (or talk less to) because they are just so judgemental about how you are not the perfect parent and you are potentially screwing your child up?
I have to confess I used to be one of them. Before I had my own child I really had no idea how hard it is. I phoned a friend back then, and her 2 year old daughter can not stop screaming in the background because she didn't like her mom talking on the phone, and she wasn't doing anything about it ! Back then I gossiped behind her back with another (childless) friend, and say how could she not even attempt to discipline, or tell her daughter no screaming while mommy is on the phone, and how her daughter would end up to be a spoiled brat.
Having a child is like taking the red pill in Matrix. You just crossed over to the other side and can see the big picture. All of a sudden you know how hard it is, and now I understood why my friend ignored her child back then. It's just not easy when you have to deal with a Terrible-Two year old 24/7. Maybe she's at her wits' end, maybe she's just tired. Now I know.
However I still has friends who didn't have, and/or choose not to have children. They have their idealistic way of how to bring up a child. They are good at criticizing how we are not doing it right at the sidelines. For example, they'd occasionally post these articles on facebook about how, say, Swedish raise their kids and didn't let the children to be the center of attention, unlike Americans does...etc. While I do agree, sometimes it is just not as easy as childless people think it is. They just treat the whole parenthood thing as a textbook topic with their theories.
So now, I do feel judged (on my back) on how I am potentially screwing my child up by these childless friends. It does bother me and I ended up not talking to them anymore.
This may be a big rant, but do you have friends like that? How do you deal with them?