I have to admit I wasn't real sure about "Emaryn" at first, but "Leif" was an instant hit.

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vw, I hope it passes for you, soon.

Ms. Bug, here is your mantra when you feel the panic coming on: "I'm flippin' out like a mammal! And yet, though I am a mammal, does it perforce require that I flip? Nay, not! For indeed, many mammals are flipless, perhaps even sedate. Consider the humble sloth. Not so flippy..."

I'm hoping that by the time you're done with that you'll be so distracted by the nagging thought that "Hec is an idiot!" that crisis will have passed.

You could just skip to the "Hec is an idiot" part, vw.

It was a startling realization.... many years too late, of course.

Hee.

I've seen more of this than anything else.

Yes, and I really do understand it. People can be awful, and then they raise their children the same way. They are not following Aimee's anti-asshat edict. And, to be fair, even decent kids (and decent parents) have bad days, where they're impossible to be around.

I don't care for child hating either. I don't like those forums. I will sympathize with tales of asshole parents raising asshole children, though.

Oh, sure. This is actually one of the pastimes of parenting, as well. I try not to participate though, because as a parent you learn that as soon as you say, "I'd never..." or "No child of mine will ever," fate is going to try its damndest to prove you a liar.

I don't really like kids unless I know them. And I will avoid them, in restaurants and theatres and on vacations, when possible.

This, I do get. They change the atmosphere. One plus I noticed about parenthood for me--kids acting up in restaurants, etc. no longer annoy me. It's not because I'm now immune to the acting up, but I'm so frigging relieved it's not my kids acting up, or even better, I'm so enjoying that my kids are home and I'm out just like a whole human individual.

What's funny and sometimes maddening is that Tom's dr. won't give him a vasectomy and mine won't give me an IUD because we're too young and those are options for "families." i.e., people with children.

My extremely fertile best friend, who had 3 kids by the time she was 26, had to beg her OB for a tubal ligation, and it was really an incredible fight, with much waiting. She started asking after she'd had the first two babies. Sheeesh. Maybe they're kind of like Rabbis, when Gentiles want to convert to Judaism--turn 'em away three times, and if they come back again, they really mean it?

I can kind of understand it about the IUDs, because the patient isn't exactly choosing sterilization, but it is a (I think now less common) side effect. But surely, if someone requests a tubal ligation or a vasectomy, it can be made clear that it is a usually irreversible sterilization technique, not merely contraception, and people ought to be free to make up their own minds.

I have a quasi-friend who is edging toward child hating. And it's making me edge right away from her.

Then there's the coworker who, after meeting me twice for under 15 minutes each time, told me I absolutely had to have kids.

Both seem like serious lapses in manners.

Oh, yeah.

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{{{vw}}}

I hope things look better after the nap.

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My mother didn't have a girl's name picked out when I was born, she was so certain she was having a boy. (The pregnancy felt different, she said. I have since pointed out that may have had to do with the fact that she was 7 years older, and had two other kids running around.) She told my sisters she thought they would be getting a brother. Which explains why they almost never call me anything but Henry or Hank, and when they do use my given name it sounds odd.

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I'm so frigging relieved it's not my kids acting up,

Yes, THIS.

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I could swear there was something in this post when I posted it.

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aw, damn. my post got eaten. it was a nice one too, about our fun at the Aquarium.

Guess it's a sign to go home.

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Uh-oh.

I could swear there was something in this post when I posted it.

It happened in movies just now too.

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2nd try!

Everyone's posts are blank, and it's freaking me out. Quick, check the basement for pods!

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