Generosity of strangers vs apathy of loved ones.

[heiowge]

I have to write this somewhere to get it off my chest and this was as good a place as any. I didn't want to write it on facebook in case people I mention happen to read it. This post is completely off topic, so I put it here. Feel free to delete it if it's too off topic. This is purely for me to vent.

I'm always amazed how people you've never met can show more compassion and generosity than the people you're closest to.

One example of this generosity:

When my son was a baby, he had this problem where he used to be able to crap right up to his hairline in less than a second. We'd be out and suddenly the smell would hit us or we'd hear him, and it'd be full change time. We went out to the Trafford Centre for the day and he did it 3 times and wasted his all but one of his spares. I was just changing him into his last outfit when he blasted that. I was out of clothes in the baby change area of the shops. I phoned my wife and asked her to buy him a new outfit, when this nice lady insisted I take a spare outfit of her son's.

What's sparked this thread though:

We lost our daughter in childbirth over christmas. It was a bad time for all, but we are starting to put our lives back together again.
We had to go last week and sort a headstone for her grave. We had quotes for the stone ranging from £950 up to over £2000. I wouldn't mind, but it's not even a big or particularly fancy one. It's also nice to know that places like the co-op can charge 100% more and seem respectable. Anyhow, we put £150 down and said we'd pay the rest off bit by bit. My wife mentioned it on her mums forum and within 24 hours people I'd never met had donated over £180.

And my own mother hasn't even replied to a text saying we'd ordered it.

Anyhow... rant / rave over. Thanks if you listened to me witter on.

[Ram]

Is it something to do with anonymity.

[Xelous]

Very sorry for your loss matey, but your point is a valid one and it makes me want to go all Mr Hyde on them when you point it out and they so flagrantly ignore you again.

[wyliecoyoteuk]

It isn't just strangers and family.
I have 2 daughters.
Both raised in the same household, in the same way, 3 years apart.
We always tried, as far as possible to treat them both the same.
One is loving, generous, hard working and a joy to be with.
The other has always been mean, lazy, spiteful and selfish.

Go figure.

[guy]

Well I have not lost a child but I have lost both parents. Disorientation and a need to rant are about right. Glad we can be here for you.

Yeah, and projectile body substances are what babies do. Urgh! Count yourself lucky you don't have a fan heater blowing the effluvium up your nostrils. It's a good feeling when they grow out of it.

Give it a couple of years and you will be stunned at what you survived. Meanwhile, don't be afraid to react badly. We all do that.