Maybe it’s a girl thing… but I sure hope not because I have a daughter.
For the life of me I can’t understand why women, nay, mothers, are so quick to judge one another.
Is it genetic, a knee jerk reaction, or just so accepted in today’s society that the idea of changing is unfathomable?
The latest target for the judges that sit on the Supreme Court of Mommydom is one Amber Miller.
The 27-year-old suburban mom from Illinois made headlines yesterday for giving birth to a daughter within hours of completing the Chicago Marathon.
According to reports, Miller felt contractions shortly after crossing the finish line at Sunday’s 26.2-mile race. Then, a few hours later, she arrived at a local hospital and pushed out her second child-—a healthy baby girl.
“For me, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I was running up until that point anyway,” Miller told The Associated Press.
For the record, Miller is an accomplished athlete who had completed seven other marathons prior to Sunday’s race. In addition, she got the okay from her doctor before running the marathon at 39 weeks pregnant.
Miller also revealed that she didn’t sprint the entire length of the course. Rather, the new mom of two tells news reporters she executed a half-run half-walk approach, drinking lots of fluids and snacking along the way. Miller’s finish time was 6:25:50, much slower, she says, than her usual marathon time.
Not for nothing, but the first time I ran the Chicago Marathon I finished in just under five hours and I was far from pregnant.
Personally, I can’t imagine running that race with a full-term baby bouncing on my bladder, but I know even more people who wouldn’t consider running 26.2 miles—-EVER!
So why all the haters?
While Miller has been met with her share of well wishers, there seems to be even more online vultures picking away at her story… and sadly the majority of the vicious commenters are self-confessed mothers.
I’ve read no less than 100 online posts ripping Miller for potentially putting her unborn child at risk so that she could satiate her desire to finish the race.
I have never met Miller in my life, but I highly doubt that she (or any mom) would go out of her way to harm her own child. Not only did she get approval from her doctor before she took off across the starting line, but also, Sunday’s race was not Miller’s first marathon while pregnant. In May, she ran a marathon in Wisconsin at17 weeks pregnant and 2009, she ran the Indianapolis Marathon while she was 18 weeks pregnant with her first-born child Caleb.
But, more importantly, who cares?
If an avid runner, who is in excellent health, wants to run a race with her doctor’s approval, who are we to judge her decision?