Take My Babywearing Selfie

So… there are LOTS of dangerous things to do while babywearing…  fire walking, scuba diving (really, anything that ends in the word diving), welding, and lots of others come to mind.  These things you should NOT DO while babywearing (among others).  If I ever decide to, oh I don’t know, tightrope walk while babywearing, please some one stop me.

BUT… putting a baby on my back is not dangerous. [Want to learn 5 ways to get a baby on your back… we have a video for that.] Imagine my surprise, then, if you will, when some one started practically yelling at me while I was wrapping my child on my back at a grocery store parking lot.  The way this woman was yelling at me, I thought one of the following things was happening behind me: 1. my baby’s hair was on fire; 2. my baby was turning funny colors; or 3. my baby was standing on my back about to take a high dive face-first into the pavement.  This poor woman RAN across the parking lot, yelling. I turned to my five year-old, “Is the Little Bit ok?” “Yes,” he responded.  So, I finished my wrap job as the woman ran up to me. “I thought you were going to drop that baby!”  In all my life, I had never wished for the ability to speak in meme so much.  I would have said:

Instead I explained that we’ve done this everyday since she was born and she and I are quite adept at this and thanked her for her concern.

That was a wasted opportunity.  I should have asked her to take my selfie.

I don’t know where I saw the original idea.  I refuse to take credit for it, but it was filed away under, “if that ever happens to me, I’m going to ask them to take a picture of my wrap job!”  The idea is that if some one asks you if you need help, offers it without being asked, or clutches pearls while you hoist your baby into their preferred babywearing position, you tell them that the way they can help the most, is by taking your picture.  Well, as luck would have it, I did have another opportunity…

While visiting the beach for Spring Break this year, my baby fell asleep in her wrap.  Admittedly, a snorer and a sweaty kid, I’m willing to guess that maybe she looked uncomfortable, but she wasn’t.  A man stopped me and asked if I needed help getting her down from there or waking her up.  Obviously, this man was unaware of the ONLY rule at our house: Never wake a sleeping baby.  NEVER.  I politely said that she was fine and that we would leave her up as long as possible, but DID ask for him to take my picture.  Here it is, when a stranger took my selfie:

And, he did a pretty good job!

Have you ever had a #takemybwselfie moment?  How have you responded?  I would LOVE to hear your stories in the comments.

I’d also love to see your pictures shared if you have ever done this. Tag #takemybwselfie