If the internet has taught me anything, it’s that every parent everywhere is always doing it wrong.

No matter what it is you’re doing, no matter how you’re doing it, someone will happily tell you you’re messing it up.

But what happens then that kind of contradiction is coming from inside the house?

Check this one out.

AITA for holding 2 year old daughter when she was having a meltdown?

I (20’s, M) have a 2yr old daughter, we’ll call her Meredith for the sake of this post.

And there’s a LOT going on here.

Our lives have been a bit chaotic in the past month.

We moved houses, Meredith went to preschool for the first time, and then Baby #4 arrived.

She’s always been our more emotional kiddo, but with all of the changes in her life lately, the crying is more frequent.

I think she’s super overwhelmed.

I’d be crying too if I were in a house with four little kids.

Yesterday was one of those days where everything was setting her off.

Eventually, Meredith just got to a point where she was sobbing and I couldn’t distract her, talk her through it, or anything else.

So I picked her up and snuggled her for a bit, and she calmed down.

Sounds normal, right?

My wife was not impressed with this at all

She said that we need to be “on the same page as preschool” because they don’t cuddle everybody that cries there.

She said that Meredith needs to learn to self soothe and that me holding her “undermines the coping strategies that Meredith is developing”.

Is this a fair assessment?

AITA for holding 2 year old daughter when she was upset/having a meltdown?

Let’s see what that ol’ internet says:

Maybe not TOO surprisingly, there was actually a fair amount of consensus on this one.

I mean, what else do you do at this age?

They have to train.

I’m no parent, but from the outside looking in, if you can’t hold and soothe your toddler…

Well that almost defeats the whole idea, doesn’t it?

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.