CRAP! What was I thinking?!

I was on my way to the bathrooms to sweep them, when I heard an ungodly screech. Sure enough, it was a toadler that had thrown itself on the floor for some reason. I grimaced and walked back towards the restrooms in time to see the mother leaving with said toadler. She looked pretty pissed, and the little snot goblin had tears streaming down its face. Oh, well, at least it shut up.
My mistake was when I told a friend and coworker that I had fantasized about swinging the little monster by its ankles and slamming its head against a wall. He looked at me in horror and said, "I think a spanking would be fine". I responded with "I know, I have a lot of violent fantasies about kids like that." He said that that was bad. I told him that was one reason why I wasn't having kids.
Like I said before, this is a good man, one who really appreciates my hard work, and I think I just scared the shit out of him. Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this? I don't want him to think I'm some lunatic.

Who cares what he thinks? Maybe he needed to hear from a normal person that he likes (i.e. you) that everyone just does not like kids. He did not expect that out of you which is good. It might make him challenge some of his other expectations.

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"I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all."
~Sigmund Freud

You could mention that you were just extremely frustrated and just said the baby swinging thing as a bit of a pissed and simply-said-to-shock venting. You don't have to say that you like babies, but that you get their 'wonderfulness' pushed on you a lot and that the shrieker just set you off.

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nightfire
You could mention that you were just extremely frustrated and just said the baby swinging thing as a bit of a pissed and simply-said-to-shock venting. You don't have to say that you like babies, but that you get their 'wonderfulness' pushed on you a lot and that the shrieker just set you off.

I was going to say something sim. Also - don't bring it up again unless he does. Chances are it's already forgotten. If he brings it up again - just say you were 'blowing off steam' or etc. If you're pressed and have to 'be creative' you might say you saw one of those 'Chucky' or 'Evil Doll / Child' movies the other day and you were just thinking of that, not a 'serious thing' ~

And you already forgot it anyway, so - whatever ~

What were we talking about again? What's next to do here / change subject.

Thanks, everyone! I've never said anything like that in public before. It's kinda cool, but it scared me too. I'm wont being it up again, I was just worried he'd tell management. Fortunately, nothing happened today. I'm hoping tomorrow will be the same way. As for change of subject, did anyone see Guardians of the Galaxy?

You really have to apply a filter in the workplace. You cannot relax and think that you're among friends. I think violent thoughts about annoying people all the time. I enjoy thinking of extended scenarios in my head to deal with irritation, and sometimes I share those thoughts with people who I know won't be horrified by them. It's obviously just a way of dealing with stress, since I have not done and would not do these things, but some people find admitting to such thoughts to be a sign of instability. (Unless of course your fantasies involve sprog protection, in which case you get a free pass on imagining hitting people at a market when they haven't done anything aggressive or annoying to you.)

Looking at the news that we bash here reminds me of how most of the world thinks about natalist issues, and keeps me from saying anything "too outragous" at the workplace. I will readily admit that I don't enjoy spending time around children and find them annoying, but other thoughts I save for Bratfree.

It may have been forgotten, or it may have subtly changed his opinion of you. I know my opinion of someone was forever changed when he let slip that he thought I was selfish for not reproducing. He'd never bingoed me or shown any curiosity about my lack of children for the five years or so I'd known him, but then suddenly this. I didn't talk about it, but I will never look at him the same way.

I don't know if it is possible to repair the damage, but you could consider a subtle campaign of rebranding yourself. That would require casually mentioning a positive encounter with a child at some point in the future, say 2-3 months from now, when it fit in the conversation. For instance, if you have an anecdote that somewhat relates to the topic of discussion, you could mention it. It need not be something about your lurve for children, it could just be an unrelated story that happens to involve a friend who has a child (where it is relevant to mention that the child exists). This says "I am not a monster who hates all children and people with children" to the average person. Most of us have had at least a few positive interactions with children, so it's not impossible to work in these references. We just normally don't deliberately try to mention them, and that's what I'm suggesting you have in the back of your mind. Don't overdo it though.