I considered punching my eye doctor square in the, well, eye

[georgeharrison]

I took my son to get his eyes checked the other day.  The dr. was making small talk with him during the exam.  She asked him if he had any brothers or sisters.  He said no.  She said, "Don't you WISH you had a brother or a sister"?  Of course he said that he did and said that sometimes he's lonely and bored and wants someone to play with.  I nearly burst into tears...on the inside of course, no outward display.

Just another example of people not getting that not having children doesn't mean that you don't WANT children.  Not everyone gets to decide if they have children and how many they have.  I know she didn't mean anything offensive by it, but man, I was upset.

[jessnpaul]

Totally uncool! Like you said, she didn't mean anything by it, but sometimes people just don't realize what they're saying!

My coworkers have been harassing me about giving B a sibling. My standard answer is "you know I'm 40 right?". But they're all "that doesn't matter!". Um, yes it does, in my case at least! I certainly don't want to tell them everything I've already been through, but they just won't drop the subject!

[bronxgirl]

What is wrong with people? Think before you speak!

[ginkgoleaf]

Wow. I would have had a hard time not crying or saying something to make the doc feel bad.

[yellowbrkrd]

Ugh. I don't understand why anyone would think that's okay to say. You never know what someone is going through or their reasons for having a certain number of children.

[atlas]

I seriously do not get why people are so fucking dense sometimes.

I don't know if I could, but I wish that if anyone does anything like this to me (I have no kids, never tried, but hypothetically) I could be the person who says something biting that makes them rethink ever saying shit like that.

[georgeharrison]

My dad was telling me once about him being at a doctor's appointment and he asked the nurse if she had any children. She said no, and he said something like "Oh, you have to have children. They are so great." When he told me about it, I had to say something. I told him that he shouldn't ever say anything like that because she could possibly want children more than anything and be unable to have any. He said that he had never thought about that before because our family has never had "that problem." So, then I had to tell him that actually I have that problem. And yes, I have an amazing child, but we aren't able to have another. It was enlightening for him, I'm sure. And I bet he felt like #2, but at least, hopefully, he won't make any hurtful comments to anyone in the future.

[bronxgirl]

Jan 5, 2015 15:33:57 GMT -5 georgeharrison said:

My dad was telling me once about him being at a doctor's appointment and he asked the nurse if she had any children. She said no, and he said something like "Oh, you have to have children. They are so great." When he told me about it, I had to say something. I told him that he shouldn't ever say anything like that because she could possibly want children more than anything and be unable to have any. He said that he had never thought about that before because our family has never had "that problem." So, then I had to tell him that actually I have that problem. And yes, I have an amazing child, but we aren't able to have another. It was enlightening for him, I'm sure. And I bet he felt like #2, but at least, hopefully, he won't make any hurtful comments to anyone in the future.

It's good that you told him and it sounds like he got the message. I need to be more assertive about speaking up in situations like that.