BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Children *The Only* topic of conversation

Frankly, I get bored whenever people drone on and on about a hobby or pastime that I don't find interesting. Kids is an obvious one because people are so ridiculously involved in their kids' lives now and don't actually parent, as several of you mentioned. But I've had many office lunches where people talked for the entire hour about their hobby, not noticing that other peoples' eyes had completely glazed over. Not to mention the parties where people corner you for an hour or so and you're desperately looking for a way out of the conversation!

Jenny Ann, I feel your pain. I lost a good friend to "them" about five years ago and I still think about it today. But what can I say, I wasn't interested in talking about diapers or mortgages and she wasn't interested in talking about politics or the environment. Every time we saw each other it was in her toy-strewn living room with her daughter within arm's reach...forget adult conversations! At some point I just said to myself, it's not a real friendship if you aren't having fun together and you can't express your opinions to each other.

I wish Meetup was an option for me but I live in Canada, and haven't seen any locations on our side yet for childfree.

I understand nexactly how you feel! I�ve experienced exactly the same among my girl friends.

I pretty much had the same experience at a social event this weekend. The women I was catching up with are not really close friends of mine, but I do like them a lot. One of them had her first child about 5 weeks ago after several rounds of in vitro and a very difficult pregnancy. Unfortunately, because I don't know these people very well and because I am quite an introvert (a great listener but not always the most engaging conversationalist), I had trouble keeping the discussions from constantly cycling back to babies and parenthood... and of course the dreaded question, "When are you going to have yours?"

Fortunately, the evening wasn't a total loss. I was also able to spend some quality time speaking with just the husbands of these women -- probably the most entertaining and stimulating conversation I had all evening and with virtually no mention of babies!

This is one of those Moms that you might want to give a break to, though.

I had a friend who had to go the invitro route - and it was a painful, stressful journey for her and her husband. They went through 2 miscarriages, 2 missed implantations, and then she was on bedrest for her entire 3rd trimester.

So these Moms are not only the normal "happy to have a new baby" bubbly, but experiencing a level of relief that everything is over with and came out OK - most of us (even those of us with kids) can't even relate.

I am sorry that it eventually came around to the "so when are you..?" I think that most people don't know what else TO ask. They want to include you in the conversation, and are not sure how to.

Actually - this gives me an idea for another conversation - so I'm going to go start a thread about this very thing.

Invitro is a big hit and miss stressful and nerve raking process! I would give her a break just because anyone willing to go through that process needs a break! of course there should be an age limit to invitro 50 or younger I think would me reasonible I thing for first time mothers and 40 for the childed parents! but that is just what I would think would be safe ages for mom and baby and there should be couciling to go with it! anyways....
I imagine the stress of final having the child and everything ok and everything would be a thing to brag about...as for the bingo I would have drawn the line and she should understand that not everyone wants needs or has to have kids....

I'm sorry, I should have clarified; I must have sounded extremely insensitive. Actually, it wasn't the "in vitro mom" who was the problem, but rather her presence was the catalyst for the obsessive baby talk. It was the other woman who kept turning the discussion back to parenthood and directing a lot of the conversation to the new mother the whole evening.

There was only one thing that the new mother said that really bothered me. She said that she didn't really want children right now, but because she is near 40, she didn't want to wait any longer because she was afraid she might regret it later it if she didn't have a baby. It broke my heart that she was willing to spend countless thousands of dollars and untold stress to risk her life on the chance she might regret not giving birth.