Quote:
Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale
I've noticed in this thread how many parents had acute reactions to this tragedy, detailing things like feeling they were punched in the gut, or cold chills, or the need to call home right away. While this situation is tragic and horrific, I suppose because I am not a parent I didn't get the same kind of intensity in my reaction.
Is it really that much more impactful, once you have your own kids, to read/hear stories like this? What was it like the first time you heard a tragic story about a child having just recently become a parent?
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I think it's a valid question. I was the same as you last year ... tragedies like this would happen and you'd feel terrible but generally you'd move on. Kids do change you in drastic ways. Not everybody was right about everything though ... I was told I'd become pro-life and I didn't, but I definitely looked at life in a new way.
I was surprised at how much having a kid turned me into a giant wuss. Before I had my kid I was chatting with a guy at a wedding. He looked like a tough-ass. He had tattoos everywhere and looked like he may kill you with a tire iron if you looked at him the wrong way. When I told him my wife was pregnant he looked right at me and said "one of the worst days of my life was when I realized my little boy was too big to fall asleep on my chest".
To this day that remains one of the most "un-manly" yet truthful things I've ever heard. I totally understood once the kid came. It's like turning into the Hulk, only you're impacted by sad events and instead of becoming a muscle-bound behemoth you become a total pansy. I got choked up watching a commercial once.
A commercial. When my buddy recently had a little boy I congratulated him on the house becoming 7 lbs. more manly. His reply was "I've been crying enough that I'd say the house is about 180 lbs. less manly".
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm
I honestly have no idea how some people step near the yellow "don't stand here jackass area".
Maybe it's just because I'm a tall guy, but I'm deathly afraid of even being hit by those massive rear view mirrors on the side, I'm shocked no one has been smacked by one of those and died.
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I hear you. After Flames games I'm constantly nervous standing near that line because I'm just not comfortable having a crowd of 20 drunk people behind me. Somebody decides to be a tough-guy and start a fight and suddenly that whole crowd could move. Scares the hell out of me.