"Congratulations on your new baby."

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I know technically not everyone can get pregnant and keep it alive for the next nine months, but that isn't exactly the hardest task to accomplish either. What is the congratulations for and why are these new parents so darn proud of their new baby they refuse to believe not everyone is all that interested in knowing what Little Johnny finally learned to do today?

Disclaimer: I don't hate babies, I just think people are stupid.

I agree wholeheartedly. I have never been able to bring myself to congratulate someone for having a baby or getting pregnant/getting someone pregnant. If the people involved are happy about it and seem like they would make good parents, then I'm happy for them. But it's not exactly any great feat or accomplishment, unless they had to go to amazing lengths to accomplish the conception due to infertility issues or some such.

"Congratulations! You figured out how genitals work!"

Babies are often used as status symbols. Many, if not most people, believe that a family isn't complete without children. When people show off their babies, I think that they are basically trying to communicate, "Look! I've completed a major life milestone and I am normal!" Instinctual love for the baby also probably has something to do with it. People who take pride in something will take care of it to maintain that sense of pride.

I hate babies, they disgust me and are loud. I also hate children, and I especially hate going to places where children like to go, but I normally love going to those places. Like the zoo, I like going to the zoo, but I hate that there are so many kids. Kids with less social skills and social sense than I do. I know better than to run up behind a complete stranger and try to shove them away. Kids do not seem to know this little bit of social knowledge. Of course I just push them back because I am bigger than they are.

Parents are the worst. I hate when parents try to parade their kid around as if it's the new messiah. It's a baby, good job, you didn't use a condom. Have a cigar.

I think what I find really annoying is how the same kind of acknowledgment isn't given to couples who get pregnant outside of marriage. How is it possible that the same exact news/event (i.e., unplanned pregnancy) is received differently simply based on the official relationship status of the two people involved? It's as if this is just another way to encourage people to conform and follow traditions or die.

It's so annoying it almost makes me want to get pregnant outside of marriage just to show the world what a rebel I am.

If I do get married, I will make it crystal clear to my wife that I DO NOT want my aspie genes spreading and possibly have a kid with full-blown autism. She'll have to settle for adoption.

Not to mention I can't stand babies when they have their temper tantrums. They shriek louder than a 747 spooling up its engines...

This. I can't stand it when parents talk about the details of their child's bodily functions as if anybody else actually doesn't find it disgusting. If I talked about my bodily fluids nobody would like it.

No one congratulates people who give birth to old babies, I think we live in a sad world.

I seem to share the opinion of a few people in here. I hate children in general, the younger they are, the worse they are. They are loud, so very annoying, and seem to be good at hogging attention. I hated children even when I was one. I was actually ashamed of myself for being a child, and I hated life and wanted desperately to fastforward out of this crazy stage of life. Kids can be hell, and I know I never want any living under the same roof as me.

No, I don't understand the achievement of having a baby. "Congratulations, you made the next 20 years of your life hell", is what I generally think when I see a couple showing off their baby like it's the best thing in the world. I don't get it, all I see is a human-shaped piece of skin, presumably with blood and organs inside it.

By the way, at school once the was a motivational speaker at the leadership day that I attended who said "I only talk at high schools because I like to talk to children when they are people" That little comment put a rare smile on my face.

I though the act of congratulation was to celebrate the fact that the baby they have given birth to is healthy. Plenty of things can go wrong in the womb, i've seen plenty of examples of the various mishaps that happen in my line of work.

I knew someone who had given birth to a daughter with downs syndrome and let me tell you...weren't many people saying "congratuations" at the news of that birth. She said it felt more like a horrific funeral and people couldn't even bare to look in the face and that was just the doctors let alone her relatives. The doctors were just none stop telling her all the statistics of what was going to happen to this "freakish mutant" daughter of her's.

I find that incredibly sad that people who should know better still prevail with such attitudes.

It's quite simple really, there so happy for it and there so obsessed with it at the time that they cant help but talk about it all the time and as much as they can without realizing there annoying people... Wait... Well that's an interesting revelation if anyone just caught that.

It was when I realized this ("Their obsession with this little human larva is like my obsession with [insert current obsession here]. They can't help it and they probably don't even realize how uninteresting it is to most people.") that I learned to forgive people for going on and on and on about how fascinating their child is for developing typically. I'm still not interested, unless it's my "niece," but I get it.

Although, now that I sort of see it close up, the developmental process really can be quite fascinating.



Most of these things are outside of their control, though, which makes it something not worthy of congratulations--they still didn't really accomplish anything. Maybe the woman refrained from smoking or drinking or doing drugs, maybe she went so far as to watch her diet and take vitamins, and that may be worthy of congratulations if it was a sudden and huge change for her, but otherwise.... I just don't see it.

I don't know where you're from, but that's not the case around these places. Plenty enough unmarried couples, young unmarried couples, females - young or not having babies without partners and plenty of people happy for them and happy with them. It's just not that big a deal.

Conservative parts of California (they do exist) represent.

Which is why I don't understand why this scenario also happens all the time:

A: I'm pregnant.
B: Congratulations!

(Unmarried Version:
A: I'm pregnant.
B: Uh-oh.)



Well, I'm of the opinion that people should stop having their own babies until they can take care of all the crap that's already littering this planet. If I don't think the birth of a seemingly healthy baby is any cause for celebration, you don't know what I think about the birth of a baby with Down's syndrome.

I love most babies and children. I do believe it is a special time because it's a new little life. Not all child(ren) are horrible to be around. I actually enjoy spending time with most babies and children, it's great to watch them experience and react to something new and to teach them so many little things, it's fun.

And I do congratulate any parent whether they are married or not. I believe at least in America, we are getting away from the discrimination of unwed mothers and their children.

It's easy for someone to say, it's no big deal getting pregnant and having a baby when they have never experienced it themselves.

Some children are seriously rotten which says a great deal about the parents. I don't like when people try to force a one-sided conversation on me about how perfect their babies or child(ren) are and nothing else. I will walk away. If they decide to be that rude to expect me to stand their silently and listen to them carry on non-stop, I can be rude back and go somewhere else so that I don't have to listen to them. People can be proud of their children and NOT behave like that.

I don't like the uncivilized monster child(ren) either, the ones who walks into your home and immediately turns their sippy cup upside down, spilling some kind of bright red liquid right on your new carpet then the real fun begins as the little monster(s) runs around and around in your home, jumping from one piece of your furniture to another, trying to break and destroy anything they can get their filthy little hands and fingers on, wiping their disgusting little snotty noses on the finely upholstered cushions of your couch while their parents "seem" oblivious and say absolutely nothing about their terrible behavior because they are too busy watching you with an amusing expression stuck on their smug face, obviously taking a whole lot of pleasure in the fact that their monster(s) are destroying your home and turning you into a nervous wreck.

Nor do I like the screamers who scream as high pitched and as loud as they can when they don't get their way or they scream as high pitched and as loud as they can just to get everyone's attention when you are trying to enjoy a nice romantic evening out to dinner and the movies with someone special.

Not all babies and children are that bad, if they were, people would probably stop having sex or never go off birth control.

Last edited by Taupey on 13 Oct 2010, 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

People want us to enjoy their babies as much as they do. I can't enjoy just because somebody wants.