By Samantha Rodman of Dr. Psych Mom

Meryl Kupper, a 45-year-old mom of two, disgustedly told her friends that she saw a 3-year-old walking down the street sucking on a pacifier. “What is wrong with people?” she asked as she relaxed in her kitchen, using gel pens to color in an intricate design in her favorite adult coloring book, Stress Relieving Patterns.

“I mean, there are developmental cut-offs for certain behaviors. I would know, being a mom of two, and also I took a child psychology class in college,” she continued as she debated between cobalt and magenta to fill in the curlicues around the border of the page.

Mrs. Kupper, a data analyst for a major corporation and the owner of six adult coloring books, is not shy about expressing her distaste for children who engage in behaviors that seem “inappropriate” or “developmentally stunted.” In addition to pacifier use in children over 1 year of age, she is also personally affronted by children who use sippy cups after age 3, children who co-sleep after the age of 6 months, and children who believe in Santa Claus after age 8.

“Some parents just don’t understand how they’re messing their kids up by coddling them,” Mrs. Kupper mused while coloring a particularly tricky series of diamond shapes with her aqua gel pen. “Do you think that a kid who uses a pacifier as a 3-year-old is going to know how to act in preschool?”

Mrs. Kupper completed her picture with a sigh of self-satisfaction while discussing how her neighbor’s child is almost 34 months and not potty trained.

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About the Author

Samantha Rodman is a clinical psychologist in private practice. She blogs at Dr. Psych Mom and is the author of How to Talk to Your Kids About Your Divorce. She lives with her husband and three kids in Maryland.