maybe i'm still a bit sensitive...

i was sitting with a group of women the other night and the topic of children came up. (as is normal when most of the women are parents who are sitting around the table.) one comment that was made has stuck with me but also really stung when it was made.

i guess maybe i'm still a bit sensitive to these kinds of discussions. we were talking about how the women with more than one child try to spread their attentions evenly between each child. one woman stated that it was hard to do with her kids because one has some developmental issues and the other does not. the one without thinks that they need to go to the same sort of appointments that the one with has to go to. how do you tell your child that they don't have the same needs as their sibling(s)?

another woman stated, "that's why you have to have more than one. just when you think you've got parenting all figured out something else happens to knock you down." this is the comment that really stung. having been pregnant three times and lost two of those, it's a sensitive area for me. there were a couple other women around the table that have lost pregnancies, have had issues with fertility and have adopted, and have decided that maybe children aren't in the cards for them. i think the woman who said this should have thought about what she was saying and the company in which she was saying it.

how do you think i felt? i couldn't even say anything. i was too struck dumb by what was implied. it felt like she was saying that if you didn't or couldn't have a second child you're not worth much as a woman. maybe i'm still a bit sensitive about these things right now.