[QUOTE=Uzi]
Thank you, mswas. Without your contribution we’d only have 6,718,481,873 people in the world instead of 6,718,481,874. It gives me nightmares to think that if you hadn’t screwed your girl friend in the back seat of that Rambler we’d all be extinct now.
But why do I imagine that during the actual physical process (an image I am trying to wipe from my mind as I write) you were thinking, “the future of the species is in my hands!”?
[/QUOTE]
If the future of the species is in his hands at that point, he’s doing it wrong anyway…
I’ve never understood the imperative of “perpetuating the species”. If I don’t perpetuate the species, how does that affect me? I’m going to be dead before our numbers get low enough to make a difference, and at that point I’ll be incapable of caring.
[QUOTE=mswas]
I’m just mildly amused that my innocuous question caused so much vitriole, and that my tongue in cheek comments are eliciting so much bitterness.
[/QUOTE]
Suck taint, you insufferable puke.
[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Suck taint, you insufferable puke.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Civilized people have actually figured out that issues revolving around fertility/pregnancy/parenthood can be very sensitive, and therefore don’t generally play “Poke The Hornets’ Nest” on the subject.
My Cow worker would be getting the following note on her desk:
"After our conversation of yesterday I could not help but be intrigued by your feelings about having a child and being a ‘real woman’.
Please allow me to educate you as to why a woman might not want to have children.
A woman may choose not to give birth because;
She is infertile and cannot have a child.
Her husband is infertile and cannot make a child.
She hasn’t the funds for fancy science to make the child she desperately wants.
She has had so many miscarriages that she has stopped trying.
She underwent an abortion that left her unable to have children.
She has a medical/genetic condition she fears passing on.
She was raised by wildly dysfunctional people and fears for the mother she might become.
She is not eligible to adopt because of age, finances, education, etc.
She had a child and it died and she cannot get over it.
She had a child and surrendered it to adoption when young, now, no other child could possibly fill that void.
She has witnessed the toll that mental illness has taken on her siblings and fears for any offspring they or she might have.
Of course, I could go on like this all day long. My point is that each of the things on this list are considered not just private but exceedingly personal in nature. These are not the sort of reasons that one might share with others casually. More importantly good manners dictates that one should not put others in such a position.
Asking if a woman has children? Okay.
Asking if she wants some one day? Also, okay.
Pressing her to find out ‘why’, is not just rude and ill mannered it is indelicate in the extreme. It is offensive, not just to the person being pressed, but to anyone within earshot who may have suffered the sort of traumas appearing in the above list. A woman my choose not to have a child for any reason at all. And whatever those reasons are, it’s none of your business.
This is not appropriate casual conversation in an office space and I am astounded a woman of your maturity doesn’t know any better. Please do not let your questions stray into nosy and offensive in future, it is most unbecoming to you. Conducting yourself with good manners and tact would be far more effective and a great relief to those who work along side you.
Signed a ‘real’ woman!"
[QUOTE=tdn]
“If I want whiney, childish behavior in my life, I’ll just log onto the Dope.”
About six years ago, I hopped into a taxi, and the driver somehow got onto the subject of having children. I explained that I didn’t have any, and that my GF at the time was a week or so away from getting a hysterectomy. The cabbie immediately went into a diatribe about how she’d no longer be a “real woman” and how I should leave her immediately. Yeah, that would make me a really thoughtful BF. GF is staring down the barrel of cancer, is about to face one of the scariest events of her life, and I should leave her so that I can father a bunch of hungry brats that I never wanted in the first place?
Some people have very strange priorities.
[/QUOTE]
Did you tip the driver? If not, I’m gonna have to Pit your ass.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
It’s not a strawman when one responds to what you actually wrote rather than what you think you wrote.
[/QUOTE]
You’re right it’s not.
jayjay I didn’t poke the hornets nest. I asked a question and got a bunch of really nasty responses to such a simple question. So to the people who flipped out hysterically I made a couple of tongue in cheek ripostes. The responsibility is not upon me just because they are so oversensitive to a question like:
Why do you use such derogatory terms to describe children?
Even the OP answered the question simply and honestly and there was nothing wrong. The only people who got all uppity with their recreational outrage were the ones who started talking shit first.
But alas, as rationality is not in great supply in these parts, I accept responsibility for it all because I was the one not getting hysterical and apoplectic when my lifestyle choices were questioned. I don’t know about you, but I find it kind of funny that the person who was talking trash about my daughter is the one calling ME a troll.
[QUOTE=Queen Bruin]
You, darling, were the one that was posting, as you admitted, just to “fuck with me”. That is the very textbook definition of trolling.
[/QUOTE]
When you were already fucking with me. Just because you’re not honest enough to admit it doesn’t make your behavior any different. Or is there some sort of holy sanctification that you have received through some religious ritual I am not privy to that makes your sarcasm about my daughter more sanctified than my sarcasm about your lack of one?
How many butterflies do you kill a night when you roll over?
[/QUOTE]
Trip trap, trip trap, who is that walking on my bridge? :rolleyes:
Have I told you lately that if I weren’t a menopausal grandmother (how’s THAT for successful DNA?) I’d almost be willing to have your babies, Cervaise?
[QUOTE=elbows]
Asking if a woman has children? Okay.
Asking if she wants some one day? Also, okay.
Signed a ‘real’ woman!"
[/QUOTE]
I have to insist that I disagree, at least in a professional situation.
I don’t ask anyone that at work, especially women. I might ask, if I might ask if they have children, but I think that’s the kind of personal information that you wait for people to offer.
