Maple Ridge mom calls for kindness, after strangers make families feel unwelcome in public spaces

MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS 1130) – If you have a young family, getting out and about can be challenging enough: The gear, wrangling the kids — it’s not easy.

Then, many families have to deal with judgemental and disapproving comments from strangers.

This is why one mom from Maple Ridge has taken to social media to call for a little more kindness.

Stacey Chomiak decided to post something to Facebook after two different incidents involving her family.

Last weekend, a pair of strangers told her toddler son to “be quiet” and “shut up” while they were waiting for their order in a coffee shop.

“Finally, my wife looked over and said ‘excuse me?’ and one of the people at the table said ‘Why would you bring kids in here? it’s so disrespectful,'” she recalls.

Then, just this week, Chomiak says her wife was again confronted at a local thrift shop.

“Someone very loudly turned around and said: ‘Why would you bring in that awful stroller in here and those kids?” she tells NEWS 1130.

Chomiak says the incidents have left her family feeling upset and discouraged. She’s hoping her post can help encourage others to show a little more compassion.

“Being a parent is the hardest job ever, and you’re sort of always tired, and you’re often very frustrated and you’re trying so hard,” she explains, adding just taking a minute to think before you speak can make a difference. “If you just think for a second and realize that it’s a mom on her own trying to juggle her two kids, and she’s doing the best she can.”

Chomiak’s post on Facebook asks people to “be helpers,” and make the commitment to just do better.

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