My little one is a great kid and it takes more than criticism from someone who only sees them on holidays to annoy me. However, I am very open to friends of ours who interact regularly with us to give scrutiny of our parental actions. I might feel differently if our little one was a monster and we were bad parents, in which case we would probably deserve the criticism.

I have made comments (I unusually mind my own business but sometimes their kid’s actions effect my “business”) to my sister-in-law about her kids a time or two and it doesn’t seem to do anything aside from causing an argument, so I usually defuse the issue quietly without pissing everyone off by speaking what most already know and are thinking. FYI – my sister-in-law and her husband do not believe in punishment and it shows in the fact their kids don’t understand there are negative consequences to negative actions.