My mom gave me a baby-care book that was published in the '60s and had some amusing & amazing bits of retrograde advice. Would this be of interest?

While I'm hoping against hope that there WAS a corporate policy that decreed all cashiers asked that stupid-ass question of every customer, on behalf of my Japanese relatives, thank you for being insulted by that exchange. I'm always so embarrassed (and angry) when shit like that happens, especially when it's my mom…

She did, when she was elected as a GOP Representative from Texas.

Thank you for sharing that. It not only made my day, it makes me feel so much better about the kind of mom I've been so far.

I would also like to say that I fully support your choice to be child free, and as a new mom, am occasionally deeply envious of you, even though we've never met. May you continue to have a happy, fulfilling life.

*wild applause*

Yes!!! And none of them thought this was even the slightest bit offensive!

I know, right? If I hadn't married into it, I wouldn't believe half the things my ILs say & do!

*bows* thank you! Telling this story has become my passive-aggressive revenge for the book.

Can't wait to see what we'll get this year! (Your dog included.)

Every year I make bets with myself about what weird gift I'll get from the ILs. Last year, I was supposed to have received a personalized photo frame (with a "live, laugh, love"-type of saying on it), but MIL was still "personalizing" it on Christmas Eve. Still haven't received it. All things considered, I'm OK with…

Now-husband's family is very LDS (Mormon). He identifies as atheist; I am happily agnostic, but his family still hopes he'll return to the fold. So one year, we receive a book from his sister. This modern-day masterpiece is titled "The Crippled Lamb", and is a children's book about (you guessed it) a crippled lamb.…

Yes. As a kid, I was told the things I liked weren't appropriate for a girl, so I made guy friends. I wasn't trying to be the "Cool Girl" initially, but that became my niche by default, and there was a period where I actively worked at maintaining my "Cool Girl" status. Now I'm just me, and I still like what I…

I literally gagged when I read this and am now typing from a semi-fetal position (no pun intended). You win all the things, and I now need a brainscrub to get this out of my head.

Completely agree. I was wary about becoming a parent because I never thought doing so would fulfill me/make me happy (100% of the time). People told me at the time that I was being too cynical. But now that I am a parent, if I express dissatisfaction/unhappiness/unprecedented levels of frustration with parenthood,…

Yep, I get that, and she said as much after the fact. I was just taken aback by the suddenness of her bailing out (it happened via text after we'd left the house and before we got to the restaurant).

Um, we met for brunch. At a restaurant. At an outside table, so we wouldn't annoy our fellow brunch-goers (or breakfast- or lunch-goers). Me, my husband, and a mutual friend, at a table set for four. The kid was fine, our other mutual friend was fine, everyone was fine.

THANK YOU. I find I want to reply to ALL the comments here because I identify with so many of the sentiments expressed. Both my husband and I were previously in the never-having-kids camp until about five years ago, when the idea began to seem acceptable, and then, at times, even attractive. (Obviously, there can…

I'm finding that our friends are sorting themselves into two groups: parents and non-parents. WE are not doing the sorting; they are. This actually started when we announced that I was pregnant - our childfree friends became uncomfortable around us, like they thought it was a kind of betrayal. This has continued,…