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I know that I don’t know what it’s like to be a mom. What I thoroughly understand is that I have zero understanding of the life of a parent. But, since my friends who are parents were once in my shoes – they didn’t always have kids – then I can say that they do know what it means to not be a parent. They know what it means to have my life. Though it can seem like that memory is totally forgotten once they have kids, because they can say things to me that I know them, in the past – the younger, childless them – would have hated to hear. So…do they just not think about that before speaking to me? Have they lost all ability to ask themselves, “How would I have felt if somebody said this to me before I had kids?” As the one who has experienced both sides of that change, being childless, and then having kids, shouldn’t my parent friends be the ones to be a bit more considerate in how they speak to their childless friends? That’s what I think. So I am often surprised when my friends with kids say these things to me. I know they have a million more things on their minds besides caring for my feelings but…if they want to keep their childless friends, they’ll need to be sensitive to them, too. Here are condescending things parents say to non-parents.
You just live for yourself
It’s not always as direct as this or as harsh as this, but it is getting at this. There will be some comment suggesting that I only live for myself, and I have no idea what it means to live for somebody else. Umm…I mean, I am married. And have older parents. I have people for whom I care, and who I think about often. I do think of the needs of others. Maybe not as much as a parent, but I don’t only think about myself.
