Things only people without kids would say...

[dodi1978]

For example: wouldn't it be great if he ate some vegetables? (About DS, 2.5)?

Hollow laughter.

"Why don't you exercise before the kids wake up in the mornings?"

Said my childless cousin. We laughed and laughed and laughed.

'Am not taking maternity leave. The baby will come to work with me and sleep in a car seat under my ((doctors receptionist)) desk.'

I think that baby is now 15 and the mother never worked again.

Yes I love exercising at 4am!

My lovely friend told me she was going to get her nails done weekly while on Mat leave. She learnt.

Childless people who say how busy they are working and stuff. They used to say it to me while I had a toddler, worked full time and studied by correspondance. Oh yeah, that must be tough for you...

Thisisnotausernsme, it really depends on the child. DS slept through drilling and all sorts. I expected that DD being the second child would be more likely to sleep through noise as DS was around, and you can't exactly keep av3 year old quiet.

Ha ha ha, how wrong was I, the slightest bit of noise and she was awake.

Morris I understand twins are amazing and what people say is nice to hear but from time to time it would be nice to hear something other than "two for the price of one" etc.
I had one man ask before who was eldest and I was so pleased to have been asked a question about the boys rather than the above.
It is all very exciting, but when you've been stopped a thousand times and only one person has asked about the boys. Can you see where I'm coming from?

RapidlyOscillating I took a load of books home from work thinking I'd read up on a whole new area of practice while I was off. Needless to say the books never came out of the bag!

"Your baby is crying" said by bil while we were sleep training. His girlfriend quickly hissed "They know!" at him. He clearly didn't approve.

Nice

We aren't all like that. I don't have children (and thankfully never will) and I wouldn't spout opinions on child rearing! However I also don't comment on friend's children or acknowledge them generally so I don't know if that is better or worse

"I'd never let the baby into our bed, making a rod for your own back".

For us it's a choice of, decent nights sleep with baby in bed, or spending all night trying to trick baby into going to sleep and performing a mission impossible style task of lowering her into her cot without her realising... Then repeat every 10-15 minutes until one of cracks and puts her in the bed anyway.

Abbey this is not a nasty thread generally. We all started out child-free after all, and a fair number of these statements come from the posters themselves in their youth. It's perfectly obvious that the worst offenders are the people who intend to have children soon and rear them unrealistically perfectly. People like you who don't intend to breed tend, like you, not to express an opinion about this stuff, apart from the occasional "what do you mean you can't come to my birthday all-weekend blowout in Blackpool? Can't you just leave your BF newborn with your mum?"

I don't have children and I don't find it a nasty thread.

"Why don't you exercise before the kids wake up in the mornings?"

This made me laugh though. I would never say this. I can't make myself get up early enough to exercise in the mornings even without kids. Only an insane person would say this.

On the other side of things I'm a mum of two (3yr and newborn) and there's some things on here that aren't unrealistic and that I would certainly still say lol

People like you who don't intend to breed tend, like you, not to express an opinion about this stuff, apart from the occasional "what do you mean you can't come to my birthday all-weekend blowout in Blackpool? Can't you just leave your BF newborn with your mum?"

Yep - good one keeping it from getting nasty there.

I take time off work so DH can go on work trips abroad.

"Did you have a nice week off?" is the question that confused me. Er, yeah. I did laundry, made packed lunches, cooked tea, cleaned house, fetched DC to and from clubs, school runs... It wasn't all drudge, but it's not like a I had 4 days of exciting leisure, either.

That wasn't intended personally sorry Abbey - it was just meaning that most stupid things said about child rearing are said by people who do intend to have children, including people on this thread before they knew better. There is a very small sub-section of stupid things sometimes said about children by people who have no interest in having children of which I gave one example - but I didn't mean to accuse you personally of saying things like that.

I hear some parents say stuff like:
'I can't believe you let your dc sleep in your bed, you'll never get them out We do, because we want sleep, we are willing to just go with the flow
Is dc still wearing nappies/isn't she toilet trained yet? (she is 2 and not toilet trained, so unless you want her to wee all over the floor, it is best to leave her nappy on)

This was said to me by an employer.

DD was in full time nursery and was hospitalised with gastroenteritis at 16 months. This was on the Saturday night (you know how they wait until the weekend at 11pm when you don't have a car and are a single parent!) and she was kept in overnight and discharged Sunday afternoon. She was readmitted Sunday night and kept in until Tuesday. I rang into work on Monday to tell them I was at the hospital with her.

I kept her off nursery on Wednesday and she went back to nursery on Thursday and I returned to work. I was called into a disciplinary hearing and given a hard time for taking time off. My boss (a man) said I had 'inadequate childcare' and said I needed to find another way of her being cared for if the nursery wouldn't take her.

I asked him who looked after his kids when they weren't well. He said 'my wife'. I said well I don't have a wife, and you no longer have this employee, cleared my stuff and walked out.

I went to an agency and got a temp job starting the next week.

Utter fucking wanker!

lljkk Genuine question - what would you have preferred people to say? I think asking people is they had a good week off is just a polite question - nobody is asking because they particularly care. Most of the time, people don't even listen to your reply, surely?

Oh I'm so tired.

No you're not.

Oh I forgot an even better one!

The baby will be three weeks old won't he? Surely you'll be fine to come to our farm wedding and stay in a tent by then?

Fuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkk Off.

Silly cow still hasn't forgiven me for my absence!

So Abbey, this thread, about parenting, in the Parenting topic, on a parenting website doesn't reflect you or your views, and you're offended by that?

Plenty other topics to hang about in taking random offence at if you like? [confused

Actually I wasn't taking offence. You know people are allowed to disagree with things on here, don't you? And the thread is about things that people without children say - I'm a person without children - see how that works?

Yes, but you've said you don't say those things. Ergo, this thread can't possibly be about you. So why bother posting just to say you don't agree? I don't understand why you didn't just have a quick look and think 'nope, nothing to do with me' and go off to another thread that relates to you.

I don't have to justify what/whether I post. You don't have to comment on it - I wasn't 'taking offence' at you.