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.

No, I know you weren't taking offence at me. I just wonder at posters who do that. It's the equivalent of walking past two people in the street talking about, for example, green shoes and going 'nice I don't even like green shoes.'

Coffee good for you! Gastro is hardly a snotty nose.

On the subject of DS1's multiple night wakings and subsequent sleeping in our bed "why don't you just take him back to his bed? You're making a rod for your own back there."

If you think you could handle crawling out of your bed and carrying an upset and irritable 4yo back to his bed, and spending and eternity calming him down and settling him enough to sleep, then dragging your arse back to bed safe in the knowledge it'll all begin again the second you close your eyes, then why don't you come over and give it a whirl so I can get some feckin sleep? No? Didn't bloody think so.

Said by my own DS 22 , when faced with a3 yr old who had just been woken up from his nap to find he was in a room with several relatives he doesn't see often." " If he was my child I'd make him say hello to everyone " I took great pleasure in reminding him how grumpy he is was when he was woken from a nap.

A childless friend posted on Facebook the other day regarding the evils of bumbo use - it wasn't about the need for safety straps, just stating that children should never use them.

@AbbeyB: I wasn't offended, just confused! I felt inadequate, if I'm honest, like I should say I did something marvellous when it all I really did was laundry and toilets. it would be different if I had been to the Lakes or France. Even if all I did was laundry & cleaning while in France... I had said I was at home all week. I don't think they could take that info in, though, that someone would be off work but not go anywhere.

To be fair, there are lots of things on here that I would think, as a parent, even though I wouldn't actually say them. I don't really understand the "oh, how we laughed" comments - as if childless people are oh so ignorant. It comes across as a bit patronising tbh.

It's also a bit weird to think that parents have a monopoly on being tired. Yes, looking after small children is relentless and tiring, but so are other things too.

I'm SO tired. I couldn't sleep last night all.

REALLY.
Try not sleeping for 3 fucking years night after night after night.

Having worked full time, (40-50 hrs a week) night shifts and day shifts in the same week for over 10 years pre kids, thought I was tired then, bears no resemblance to the tired I feel with my 2 kids nowadays.
I can honestly say that.

jimi, having been blessed with a child who just didn't sleep, I too experienced horrendous exhaustion during the first few years of dd's life - like nothing I'd ever known before. I still don't think that gives me licence to pass comment on how tired other people might be.

Broken I don't think parents are trying to monopolise on being tired as if nothing else would make you tired. It's just that some childless people come out with things that show they have no idea how difficult it is to do what parents are doing. They are quite obviously ignorant. They have a right to say they are tired after a long day's work in a stressful job, but I'd like to see those childless people who come out with ignorant comments try to do their job AND have to come home to do another job. Given, we parents made a choice in having children, but the ignoramuses who have no idea ought to keep their comments to themselves... especially my childless colleague who complained that people shouldn't use their children as an excuse for being late into work or being off work to look after a poorly child. She said they have a job to do at the end of the day. Correct, yes, but when you have no other childcare, no grandparents to rely on, whose responsibility is it? This type of ignorant comment shows how naive this childless colleague of mine is.

AND I never have nor will I ever.
I smile sweetly and carry on.......

I have many murderous evil thoughts in my head, they occur at least hourly. Never would I say them out loud.

That would be crazy talk.

I'm glad the clocks have gone back, we get an extra hour in bed..

I agree childless people are behaving reasonably to say they are tired. But if they added children to their mix, in retrospect, they would think they were silly to complain pre-kids as the tiredness now with kids could be tenfold.

It's just that some childless people come out with things that show they have no idea how difficult it is to do what parents are doing. They are quite obviously ignorant.

Maybe, but many non-parents may have other responsibilities that are equally tiring. Like carers, for example, who often have far more pressure on them than most parents.

I have worked FT since dd was a baby, doing half of my work in the evenings when she was asleep, so I get the "double shift" that many parents have to do. It's tough. I just think that there are all manner of pressures on people's lives, and having kids doesn't "trump" everything else.

Parenting is difficult in many ways, of course, but some people clearly find it more difficult than others. It isn't just childless people who may be ignorant - we are all ignorant of what it's like to bring up children who are different from our own.

I love glitter!

Cant you just tell them to xyz?
Oh yes, spiffing idea. Why didnt i think if that myself

Well said BrokenBiscuit!

Some people obviously find parenthood harder than others. However, I do think that if people find it that hard and it makes them that miserable, maybe they should stop at one child? Just a thought.

One thing that annoyed me that people said before my DS arrived was "make the most of your sleep and lie-ins now, once the baby arrives that'll all change...!" I was DREADING the sleep deprivation and horror that was supposedly on its way... In reality, we have lovely lie-ins, breakfast and cuddles in bed, afternoon naps and we are currently all snuggled up on the sofa watching a movie and taking it in turns to doze!

we are all ignorant of what it's like to bring up children who are different from our own

You could have a similar thread for "things that you said when you had one child, that were ridiculous in hindsight when your second child turned out to be completely different".

I also think well if it was that bad then you wouldn't have had number 2/3/4.

"You lay with your child every night until they fall asleep?"

Twin ones:
Are they natural? Translated as "do you want to share potential infertility with a stranger in the supermarket!

Did you have a c-section? I have never heard anyone ask this question to a stranger who doesn't have multiples.

Who's the naughty one? would you ask a family of singletons this?

Which is the oldest? Because the 12 minutes that separates them is relevant!

Why aren't they wearing the same clothes?

It's a shame one wasn't a boy, then you wouldn't have needed a third. Yes because one of my DD's is surplus to requirements!

Sorry, should have been lighthearted, but instead I managed to rent my head off

When I was heavily pregnant at the baby show and my sister pointed something out to me that was supposed to help and ebf baby take a bottle I laughed and said 'no need for that, if it's hungry it'll eat', yep you guessed it, I had a complete bottle refuser!

Can't you just give them a bottle? (about a very small entirely breast fed baby who I couldn't leave for the evening).

Just bring the kids along! (Toddlers to meal in a posh restaurant an hours travel away starting at 8.30pm.)

'Well he's three months old by now so of course he should be sleeping through'

Ha