Words can often be real weapons, wounding people even more than swords, sabers, or knives. This life truth has been known for ages, yet we still continue to hurt others with our words – even if unconsciously. Small talk – small wounds, but no less painful.
In fact, the author of our story today, the user u/ThisIsMyMommyAccount, never expected that what promised to be a completely harmless meeting with new neighbors would suddenly turn out to be so traumatizing and painful for her. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and just read on.
More info: Reddit
Many people don’t think about what they actually say while speaking with complete strangers, thus sometimes hurting them deeply – and ruining the contact completely
Image credits: Kindel Media / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The author and her husband bought a big house 3 years ago – and the woman got pregnant soon after moving there
Image credits: ThisIsMyMommyAccount
Image credits: namii9 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
However, it all ended in a miscarriage for her and they were both incredibly upset
Image credits: ThisIsMyMommyAccount
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The couple went to a neighborhood event soon after, to get acquainted with the neighbors
Image credits: ThisIsMyMommyAccount
Some lady started jokingly “shaming” the author about her “empty big house” – and got severe backlash for those words
The Original Poster (OP) and her husband have a large house. It’s in a good neighborhood, bought at a good price, and has many rooms. When they bought it a couple of years ago, it was just the two of them, without kids, and they thought it was too big for them – but it was too good a deal to pass up.
A couple of weeks later, the author became pregnant, but then, alas, had a miscarriage. It was an incredibly painful experience, but life goes on, and the couple went to a neighborhood event to socialize a bit and put some faces to names.
So, during a conversation with one of the neighbors, a mom of several kids, the convo turned to the size of the OP’s house, and the woman said that she and her husband should definitely have children so that so many rooms wouldn’t be empty. This triggered painful memories for our heroine, but she tried to calm down and just changed the subject.
That would’ve been the end of it, but as the couple were leaving, the same neighbor again “joked” that such a large house was a great place for a family with kids to live. This time, the author couldn’t stand it. She approached that lady and told to her face that she and her husband would still wait until her health recovered from the recent miscarriage.
“She froze,” the author recalls. That woman’s husband also muttered something in her defense, but the OP didn’t listen and simply walked away. Well, they haven’t spoken in the three years since then – but a baby has recently appeared in the couple’s big house!
Image credits: todd kent / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
“Many people have very low social sensitivity and are unable to realize that their jokes, puns or innuendos could be actually extremely painful for their interlocutors,” says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist whom Bored Panda contacted for a comment on this situation. “On the other hand, it’s quite possible that the problem was that the women weren’t previously acquainted with each other.”
The expert likely believes that if the neighbor had known the original poster better, she might have realized that her chosen topic of conversation and jokes were causing her obvious discomfort. But that’s how it turned out. Be that as it may, even the way the neighbor couched her innuendo comes across as simply envious.
“Ultimately, questioning why people you barely know need so much living space is completely unethical and just inappropriate,” Irina sums up. “Of course, the backlash was quite harsh, but when you’re hurt, and so deeply at that, tact is definitely out of the question…”
People in the comments on the original post 100% agreed with the author and also tried to express sympathy for what she had to go through. As for the damaged relationship with the neighbor – well, after all, not all contacts are truly worth continuing. So what do you, our dear readers, actually think about this story?
Most commenters. however, supported the author, and gave their sympathy for what she had to go through
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