Insensitive comments

Sigh... Sometimes I think I get too worked up over things. But maybe it's worth it if it makes for good blog post fodder/motivation?

At lunchtime today, a coworker who has two kids (the older is BR's age) was talking about getting up to tend to the younger one in the middle of the night. Another coworker was questioning her about it, suggesting it may be time to night wean and sleep train the youngster. I chimed in to say that BR was still waking up most nights at 2 and a half... This was meant as a helpful comment, letting my friend know that other kids also woke up in the middle of the night at her son's age, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

Turns out I should have kept my mouth shut. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about since I only had one kid, and that just cannot compare to having two of them. Never mind that I wasn't trying to compare, or even say anything like "I know how you feel", since I am well aware that I don't. I sure didn't appreciate having it shoved in my face, though, and basically being told that I am not part of the group, because I only have one child.

Of course, having two children is different than having one (and in most cases, harder, especially in the early years). But at the same time, I would hope that as adults we would not be induging in silly games of "I have it so much harder than you", especially when it comes to such a minefield as human reproduction. Arguably, people have somewhat of an idea of what's coming when they decide to have a second child. On the other hand, some of us may not appreciate to be reminded that we "only" have one child (and that's all we'll ever have - queue the tiny violins).

Anyway, I guess my lesson here is to learn to keep my mouth shut. Won't be easy!

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest I feel better now :)