Huh. I always get the “Oh, your baby is so cute I’d like to cut him up for medical experiments” line.
Even joking, these posts are out of line for this thread. Don’t post in this topic if you can’t resist doing this.
Sorry, I thought when the OP said this:
and then this:
that this was a joke thread. I did not realize that some people think that when other people make cutesy little comments about their baby they literally think they are going to kidnap their children.
congrats on having a kid.
Quoted for Truth, if one was in fear that someone was about to actually kidnap their child, I really doubt that posting to a message board would be the first, or even an appropriate response.
I have many friends who have adopted children. That, and other reasons, is why I try never to make assumptions about parentage. As Lady Louisa Moncrieffe said, “Never comment on a likeness.” Although that doesn’t apply in the OPs case.
I have to agree with Drunky Smurf on this one. The OP did exactly what Drunky did and got no harshness from a mod.
It would never occur to me that asking the age of a kid is somehow wrong. That’s about the only thing I do ask - cause usually I don’t really care - and am just being polite. I’ve never thought there was anything wrong with asking the age of someone - say less than 30 or so.
My SIL is adopted.
Cashier: Oh, she’s cute. Does she look like her father?
MIL: I have no idea.
Absolutely. I have a not-quite-newborn (10 months). I don’t mind people exclaiming over her cuteness, and asking how old she is, and all that. I don’t at all. In fact, I kind of like it.
But the formula/breast thing? I had no idea that there was a whole army of people out there who have appointed themselves as the Committee for the Defense of Babies or something like that.
I’m sick of them. For one thing, it’s NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS
Sorry, I did something stupid with the keyboard and my post got cut off. Here it is in its entirety:
I’m sick of them. For one thing, it’s NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS what our baby is eating. Or drinking. Or what the delivery mechanism is. Our child is clearly not malnourished. Whatever we’re doing, we’re doing fine.
For another, the breast milk thing is wildly overblown. It’s borderline woo.
And (assuming we were to actually answer their rude questions) how do they know that there’s not a medical reason why my wife doesn’t/can’t breastfeed? Or that our daughter came early and was tiny and needed supplemental feeding (which is actually true)?
I’m sick of it.
Otherwise, if someone wants to proclaim a desire to eat my baby, or expresses a desire to take her home with them, or if someone asks how old she is, I’m fine with it. Sometimes it’s actually fun. Even when they marvel at just how much she looks like her mother, and not like me, that’s fine too (it’s true – she is completely obviously her mother’s daughter).
One of the things Ford had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in ‘It’s a nice day’, ‘You’re very tall’, or ‘You seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright?’
At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behaviour. If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months’ consideration and observation, he abandoned this theory in favour of a new one. If they don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working.
After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical, and decided he quite liked human beings after all, but he always remained desperately worried about the terrible number of things they didn’t know about.
[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT]–Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]
What the fuck did Ernest Borgnine ever do to you and Ethel Merman to deserve this comparison? I mean, I’m pretty sure he felt bad about Convoy and The Black Hole but the man had debts to pay and, well, it was the 'Seventies, and cheap knockoffs of Smokey and the Bandit and Star Wars were the hottest properties an aging ex-almost-A-lister could get. Lay off my man Borgnine and compare the wrigling little grubs to someone more deserving like, I don’t know, Tara Reid.
Stranger
Borderline? 
In regards to the OP…I ask how old babies are because I’m curious. I ask how old older kids are, too…it’s a point of interest. Certainly no offense meant.
Don’t worry, it’ll pass. All too quickly.
We were in a Duane Reade and I was tending to our twin girls in their stroller while my wife was getting something. Suddenly this booming female two pack a day voice said “oh my god, they’re so beautiful!”. I kind of sighed and turned around to thank her and she probably saw the dawning recognition on my face and helped me out. “You might remember me, I’m Patricia Neal”.
Uh, no. The OP mentioned Benjamin Button Syndrome and Hodor; he was clearly joking. DS spoke in detail about something horrible that actually happens to people. It certainly got my heart racing, and I’m very thankful he was just “joking”. But, as it has been said, not cool.
It’s called progeria, and I’ll bet this person and his family don’t think it’s funny.
I thought Drunky’s post was spot on. Plenty of comedy is based on horrible things that really happen or have happened to people. Look at Bill Cosby’s “Spanish Fly” routine from his 1969 album “It’s True, It’s True.”
Okay, bad example…
+1
See below.
Great story, good lesson!
Right! Before you had any kids, the odds depend on the allele frequencies of two different genes, brown vs. blue (B vs. b) and green vs. blue (G vs g). Of the 8 combinations, only one produces blue eyes. Two produce green eyes. But once you had that blue-eyed baby, you know the odds are 50%.
No kidding!
No doubt it’s overblown, but my understanding is that some immune system information is passed in breast milk, and also, cows’ milk can increase the odds of certain allergies. That is, despite all the woo, there is also some good science. If I’m wrong, hopefully someone will fight my ignorance. (And none of which disputes your point.)
The internet must be a very scary place for you.
I suppose the Mom could always say,
“Yup! Blew her out in 15 minutes too, like 7 pounds of bad chili the day after Cinco de Mayo. She has No Idea just how close her name came to being Quesadilla…” :eek:
Hey, get back here…! I thought it was TMI Day…!
Seconded. As a guy, the set of appropriate responses to someone showing me their newborn is already pretty small. With bland pleasantries taken off the table, we’re essentially done.
Seriously, the only thing I have left is something like “Oh, that’s great” followed by an awkward silence.