*sigh*

My first comment on the display came from the student worker who helps me with the displays. She was helping me get the finishing touches on the display and she arbitrarily picked up Claud’s narrative and read it, then said, with a sound of impatience and perhaps even disgust in her voice:

all that just because she gave up her kid?

“Well, yeah,” I said, surprised.

Then she should have kept him,

she said.

“That’s the point. She’s realized that since then,” I said.

I don’t get it,

she responded.

Did I try harder to explain, to educate?

Not today. Why? Because I know this person, and she was in A Mood, and it was going to be Lesson In Frustration if I tried to talk about ANYTHING at all today. I could tell. So I let it go. I can pick it up some other time.

I’ve made progress with this one with other things, like racism, so it’s possible to get through about important issues. Possible, but it takes time.

I just thought that the response, along with other things I’ve heard along the way in my own journey, gave me an insight into the impatience, derision, and just complete disgust that mothers who have relinquished must come across all the time. And I’m sure that’s just the itty bitty tip of the iceburg.

I almost titled this post: Give a baby away, forget about him the next day because that’s what many people seem to think that first mothers can do after they relinquish their babies. I wonder if women who have children themselves could put themselves in a first mom’s shoes, think about giving any of their kids away to someone else to raise.

I wonder why some people are so impatient with other peoples’ pain.

I wonder why pain, for some, just isn’t allowed.

All that because she gave up her kid?

Yeah, all that. And then some.

Your response: