Quote Originally Posted by crafty View Post
... but then I started thinking ... should I have picked her up just so I don't look like this big mean mom who doesn't care ?
NO. Because what you were doing was being an example for the other parents. You were sitting calmly while your child went to explore the world. I often wonder if the parents who hover secretly know they are being ridiculous, and wish that they could stop.

I have a couple of Little Tykes ride-on cars, (the one with the roof) and every child who has been here as a toddler has at least once gotten stuck. Turned around backwards, on their knees, where they can't get up because the steering wheel is in their back and they are pushing with their feet and the car keeps rolling backwards. I just watch. They might be screeming bloody murder, and the other kids are wondering why I won't help, and I'm sure the parents would be horrified, but I just keep thinking about all the things the child is learning. Learning about their body, spacial relations, physics, problem solving, emotional control and of course the sense of satisfaction that they fixed it themselves! Why on earth would I take that away from them?