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A little (very little) "joke" from my mother  

post #1 of 20
3/29/07 at 9:33pm
Thread Starter 
So, my hubby is a pastor. My mother found this amusing.

Quote:
There was a preacher whose wife was expecting a baby so he went before the congregation and asked for a pay raise. After much discussion, they passed a rule that whenever the preacher's family expanded, so would his paycheck.

After six children, this started to get expensive and the congregation decided to hold another meeting to discuss the preacher's salary. There was much yelling and bickering about how much the preacher's additional children were costing the church.

Finally, the preacher got up and spoke to the crowd, "Children are a gift from God," he said. Silence fell on the congregation. In the back pew, a little old lady stood up and in her frail voice said, "Rain is also a gift from God, but when we get too much of it, we wear rubbers."

And the congregation said, "Amen!"
Ha. Ha. Ha.
post #2 of 20
3/29/07 at 9:38pm

soooo funny!
post #3 of 20
3/29/07 at 9:42pm
I'm confused by your angry icon.... did she send this joke to you in reference to you having 'too many' children or something? I thought it was cute.
post #4 of 20
3/29/07 at 9:43pm
Thread Starter 
She thinks we should have stopped at two. This is our fourth. I guess it just seems like passive-aggressive criticism to me.
post #5 of 20
3/29/07 at 9:58pm
I could see where you would get that. From anyone else, it may have been funny. My MIL pulls little weird passive-aggressive tricks that almost everyone else misses or dismisses as her 'meaning nothing by it'.
post #6 of 20
3/29/07 at 10:21pm
How rude. I get that kind of stuff all the time, because people know we choose not to use BC. We only have two, but somehow they are sure we are going to have 37 children because we don't use BC. It's the worst from family members who should be GLAD to add new members to the family.
post #7 of 20
3/29/07 at 11:13pm
post #8 of 20
3/29/07 at 11:22pm
well, apparently not everybody gets why steam is coming out yer ears...but I do.
post #9 of 20
3/29/07 at 11:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by annettemarie View Post
She thinks we should have stopped at two. This is our fourth. I guess it just seems like passive-aggressive criticism to me.
If it had been spent to someone else, from someone else, it might have been funny but I agree, it seems like passive-aggressive weirdness IMO. Sorry.

In other news, Melissa and I were just talking about you today and how excited we are for the baby and how much we like the name Molly Bea and such. We were looking through my iPhotos for something and found your picture from last time I saw you and it got use chatting about Annette love
post #10 of 20
3/30/07 at 6:03am
I would write back and ask her if she wants me to include that in the baby book, so the baby will have a good idea of Grandma's feelings on his/her birth.

But- I am passive agreesive at times too
post #11 of 20
3/30/07 at 6:36am
I would be livid at that as well. We don't use bc either and my family knows our thoughts about large families and such. I just find it beyond offensive and disgusting.
post #12 of 20
3/30/07 at 7:14am
Aww...well the joke itself is funny; but sent with her motivation I think it is a bit mean...

We are on our first, but I am the oldest of 8 (we are ages 7 - 23) - and I just want to say how much I love being part of a big family! The younger kids are really fun and DH and I love having them visit; the older ones are some of my closest friends. It is great to always have a playmate when young and as we got older my siblings and I even did some traveling together. I am the only one who does not live at home still and I live close so we still call each other up and go to the movies and stuff!!!

DH is from a family of 5 children and they (all grown and half 5 hours away from him and his twin) still get together often - they come down and visit about one a month and we would be going up there about the same if I was not pregnant. (Oh yes, and he is getting a half brother any day now - he was due to be born last week!!!!)

We believe children are blessing from the Lord and plan to let him be our guide in how many children we have - so who knows where that will lead..but I am sure it will be wonderful be it one child or many!
post #13 of 20
3/30/07 at 11:58am
Ugh. :

Sorry you have to put up with that.
post #14 of 20
3/30/07 at 2:06pm
That is a hilarious joke! Too bad your mom had to spoil it. That passive-aggressive stuff is crappy. My grandmother does it all the time. Those comments are like little stingers that pierce any armor you have on.

You never know though, maybe she was trying to put some humor into her own misgivings so that she can laugh about it. I would flat out ask her.

For some reason that joke reminded me of one of the cartoons that created so much drama depicting Mohammed. He was standing at heaven's gate shouting "Stop! we are out of virgins!" I thought that was hilarious. But evidently it wasn't.
post #15 of 20
3/30/07 at 3:23pm
Can I just say without trying to be overbearing, not all of us find this funny. For myself I find this really, really offensive.
post #16 of 20
3/30/07 at 5:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by crunchy_mama View Post
Can I just say without trying to be overbearing, not all of us find this funny. For myself I find this really, really offensive.
I don't find it funny either. We use NFP for religious reasons, and she knows it.

The thing is, she just sent this. No message, no "found this amusing," just the joke, which makes reading her intent really hard. But usually, if she's not ignoring us she's insulting us, so my money is on her being passive aggressive.

And thanks, MSAX! I'm still seriously thinking of escaping to the city with Babymort on my own sometime this summer (like around the Harry Potter movie premiere, !) And you're getting just about due, too! I can't wait to trade baby pics.
post #17 of 20
3/30/07 at 5:35pm
Thats really offensive. Big hugs mama. To make you feel a little better I'll share a joke that someone told at a Christmas party.

So Ole and Lena go to he Dr. and say that Ole wants a vasectomy and Lena her tubes tied. The Dr. is a little shocked because they had always said how they wanted a quite larger family. The Dr. asks them, "Ole/ Lena you have 9 beautiful and intelligent children why do you want to stop now?" Ole says well I was watching the news and it said 1 in every 10 americans are Mexican, so we figured we better stop before THAT happens.

Keep in mind this person knew we had adopted DD from central latin america.

I hope you are able to talk with your mom and explain to her why its offensive and really none of her business on your family size.
post #18 of 20
3/30/07 at 7:04pm
hee, hee , hee sorry. :
post #19 of 20
3/30/07 at 7:07pm
I don't find the humor in the joke.

My MIL does all sorts of passive aggressive stuff. I hate it.

Babymort getting closer and closer.
post #20 of 20
3/30/07 at 8:43pm
That is very p-a of your mum to have sent that to you. I'm sorry she's not more supportive of you.
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