Mothers obsessing near any child they know

When I was teenager/young woman I remember at any fundie type celebration (holidays, parties, luncheons, whatever) all the women and men would sequester themselves in separate rooms. The men would typically have their eyes nailed to the TV to watch whatever sports were available. The women would be talking about whatever and of course all the brats would be in the room with the women. Every mahm in the room would have their eyes glued to watching the brats and if one so much as fell (as toadlers do all the time) there would be a collective gasp from every mahm within eyeshot. The only woman who didn't react at all if a brat did something stupid were the ones that weren't parents. Isn't most of what brats do stupid and inevitable? Why catastrophize and gasp over their every move?

For brats that wandered in with the menfolk and did whatever and started crying the men would ignore them for a couple of minutes before telling the brat it is okay without taking their eyes off the TV for more than mere seconds.
The brats were much quieter near the menfolk but once one shows up they all soon follow and loud brat noise would interrupt the sports on the TV.

Outside of babysitting or watching their own kid, is it common for womben to act like this? Is it learned or hormones? I haven't seen it since I left fundie land and I don't often attend celebrations with brats. Or if brats are there I don't pay any attention. I did once attend a singles meet up casual party and someone showed up with a spouse and a bunch of brats.

I noticed that crap as a kid too at family gatherings - the guys would all hang out in front of the television watching football, the non-senior women would be in the kitchen cleaning up and the kids would generally be under the women's feet. If a kid did something retarded and started crying, ohhh god stop the presses, but only if you're a woman because I guess only women can comfort shrieking kids. None of the men moved a muscle, not even to see if it was their kid that got hurt.

I never thought much of it as a kid because that's just how it always was, but there were times I remember seeing my uncles helping with the cleanup, so they didn't suck all the time. Usually it was the uncles who were in marriages where both spouses worked rather than one worked and one was a homemaker/SAHM.

My family was/is spread across the midwestern and western US, so we didn't always ALL get together at once. When I was still "kid" generation we all played outside or downstairs in the basement, sometimes coming and going from various rooms. At my grandmother's the "womenfolk cleaning up" thing was generally true, though my dad and one of my uncles pretty consistently pitched in with dishes and wiping down tables, etc.

I did once attend a singles meet up casual party and someone showed up with a spouse and a bunch of brats.

how did that go over with everyone freya?

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.