People are just ignorant

[Lila]

The subject came up at dd's playgroup yesterday. ALL of the mothers had cut their sons and ALL of them did it because "It's just what you do." None of them had ANY IDEA what was wrong with it. :

[pdx.mothernurture]

...Sounds like the perfect opportunity to print up some 'info packs' to hand out at the next playgroup, in case any of them are ever blessed with more sons.

Jen

[jaxinsmom]

That's really sad.
I was lucky enough to bring it up at ds' play group with a mother of twin boys who mentioned she didn't vax, and she said she didn't circ either. We were talking about it when a dad of a little guy said his wife wanted it done and he said "are you crazy? we're not doing that to his wonderful penis?"

I felt like I was home.

So, I completely empathize with your situation. I would hate to have to defend not mutilating my son and being seen as the 'weirdo'. That's reserved for my 'pre-MDC' girlfriends we don't discus it any more. :

[Lila]

Originally Posted by jaxinsmom

So, I completely empathize with your situation. I would hate to have to defend not mutilating my son and being seen as the 'weirdo'. That's reserved for my 'pre-MDC' girlfriends we don't discus it any more. :

Surprisingly, they did not treat me like a wierdo. One other mother seemed really well educated about it and said her ds had been cut before she had researched it. The other mothers seemed pretty receptive. I was careful not to sound convicting. I just told them why we didn't (tho I did add the dh was mad when he discovered what had been done to him. His parents weren't given a choice about it.) And they were like..."huh...that's interesting."
Maybe they'll think about it before they do it to any more baby boys. The only preggers mom is having a girl, thank God.

[jaxinsmom]

Originally Posted by Lila

Surprisingly, they did not treat me like a wierdo. One other mother seemed really well educated about it and said her ds had been cut before she had researched it. The other mothers seemed pretty receptive.

That's a pretty reasonable response. The key is to always be armed with lots of information.
I was out with two of my girlfriends a while back (ds was 8mo, and Lisa's ds was 2 mo) the friend without a baby asked both of us about circ, since I had not and Lisa had.
She responded with "well, we decided to do it now, rather than have complications and he'd have to have it done later anyway. Also, I just think it looks better."
This was before I had found MDC, and didn't really know what to say to her, so I just said "Oh, OK" and left it at that.
The neutral girlfriend became pregnant and had a baby last fall, thank god it was a girl because she would have Circ'd as well.
I just feel a lot better prepared now that I have the information straight in my head.
We had my Aunt and Uncle over a few months back and someone mentioned the "horror of FGM" and I looked at DH with that "what-should-I-say" look and he piped up with: "Or male circumcision...it's all horrific!" and my Uncle agreed saying "why the heck would you ever want to make it smaller??"

I do get a 'butterfly in the stomach' feeling when Im about to bring it up though, fear I supose of having to defend myself or listen to someone defend RIC. Gets me very time.