Change The Subject Please!

The department I am part of is almost all women. I am the only guy with the exception of the Section Manager. Normally I would say "Woopie!" to that but no such luck these days.

The reason? Because when you get a room full of women talking (and they do talk a lot) what do they talk about? C'mon ladies, you know what the major subject is... Ok I'll remind you. They talk about kids. Almost exclusively kids. Their kids. Each others kids. The kids in their families. The kids that are friends with their kids. Kids. Almost exclusively the topic is kids.

If they aren't talking about kids, which is rare, they are husband bashing. But I think that's funny so I don't mind. It kinda gives me an incite into what may be happening behind my back. :)

But they always come back to that one topic. They compare stories. Stories about being in labor. Stories about poopies and accidents and school and first words and first steps and dumb things kids do. No matter what the subject starts out to be it always goes back to breeding and the results.

It is exasperating.

I really don't mind the occasional cute story. They aren't so bad. I actually enjoy them sometimes. It's the never ending, same old rehashing of them that makes me nuts. I think they don't notice that even though their kid may have done something neato to them, it has already been done by some kid and talked about ad nauseum by some other parent in the same room.

I miss my days with Peachy. I miss Peachy and Spacebrain and Brownie and Kris and even the dopey Engineers back at the old job. At least when I had them I had some interesting things to discuss. Especially with Peachy. I really miss you Peachy. :(

So mostly when I go into the department these days I say hi and keep on moving. If I don't there will be stories about some kid and their antics of the night before. There will be pictures that I can not stand there and pretend to be interested in. (They always have pictures too. I swear they keep Kodak in business.) So I keep moving.

I know people love their kids. Thats a good thing. But to listen to it day in and day out makes me even more glad I was not caught in that trap. If I would ever wake up one day and find myself being so one dimensional it would be time to consider hari-kari.