Do you ever feel judged regarding not circumcising?

[photocat]

Nope, no one does it here. Circ, that is.

[BunnyMcFluff]

Never ever. We live in an area with a highish circ rate, but a high international medical provider rate (pediatricians from areas where circ is not normative and intact penises are), and a very high population of immigrants. No one has ever so much as blinked when I talk about intactivist stuff.

Or maybe I don't seem receptive to criticism. Lol

[Mommabeebritt]

I'm not going to circumcise my son... Everyone around me wants me to re consider but I can't bring myself to. I also heard that the rates of circumcised boys is dropping! Which is good because hopefully by the time he's in school it won't be such a big deal in the locker room... Because apparently it is in the high school I went to.

[iris0110]

Only by my parents. I think circ rates here are a bit higher than other parts of the country (we are always behind the curve) but it is getting lower everywhere. I can't say that people ever came up to me and asked if my son was or wasn't. I home school so I'm not terribly worried about the locker room but honestly when I was in high school you didn't shower after gym class, only if you did sports. I had two ex's and a best friend who were intact and not one mentioned any issues with name calling or teasing and we grew up in the 90's when almost everyone was circ'd. I will assume it comes down to no one checking out other guys penises, or at least if they do not being willing to talk about it. I hung out with the wrestling team and that was the one subject they didn't discuss (with the exception of the two guys who were dating each other, but that is a whole different topic).

[willownz]

Nope because no one circs here. It isnt a option to get one done. So it doesnt get talked about.

Kiwl Mum of three.

[an_aurora]

The only time I've ever gotten a comment was when I was working in the ER and one of the other ER nurses (male) was talking about how gross it was not to. I said that my son wasn't and he gave me a crazy look and started talking about how I should get it 'taken care of' because it's cleaner. I just said nope, it's not medically indicated and it's not going to happen. That was the extent of the conversation. We have a high circ rate in my state but DS goes to a crunchy school and most of the boys are intact.

[danner]

No I don't feel judged and our extended family is mixed. Some of the boys are circumcised (poor dears) and some aren't. I was talking at the family picnic about how shocking it was to see my son pulling on his penis as a baby because that thing reeeeally stretches! Some got it and some didn't. It was no big deal.

I secretly feel badly for the boys who got changed but it's like anything else. It's so entrenched in this culture that it will take time and effort to make people see the forest through the trees.

[kushie tushie]

Originally Posted by KaleidoscopeEyes nope. im an extremely vocal intactivist. if someone thinks that being intact is wrong or gross they dont deserve my respect and i wouldnt give two craps what they thought anyways.

This is me too

Amanda . Blaming my phone for typos and crap.

[canadianbakers]

Originally Posted by mapleleaf88 Circumcision is no longer covered by health insurance, and it isn't done locally. You have to go out of your way to have it done - and all the doctors and nurses here advised against it.

After my c-sec (I was under a general) the ped was checking over DS2, with DH right there. The Ped asked about circ'ing, DH said "No. We don't circ our boys." The Ped said "Good! I hate doing them. Totally unnecessary."
Umm... Whoa. Just not the reaction I was expecting - but I'm oh-so-glad to hear it!

Originally Posted by KaleidoscopeEyes its what the dr recommended and they did not educate themselves first.

Are Drs still recommending them in the US?

Maybe this is just one more body part that magically changes when you cross the border? We all know that, obviouly, a woman's uterus magically changes while crossing the border so that VBACs are terribly, horribly dangerous down there while being recommended up here!

(sorry. mini rant. drives me BONKERS.)

Originally Posted by willownz Nope because no one circs here. It isnt a option to get one done.

Love to hear that!

Even if I had been wanting to get our boys done, the few hundred $$ it costs now would have made us reconsider - at the time when the first 2 boys were born, there's no way we could have paid that for something unnecessary.
FTR, obviously if something is medically happening and a circ is medically necessary, then it would be covered and not something to pay OOP.

[KelseyH]

Originally Posted by mandabug2 I am in a local multiples group and all the ladies are always talking about their baby boy circumcision experiences, and sometimes I feel like if I were to tell them mine weren't I would be looked at like a freak. Now on one hand I really don't care what other people think, on the other I kinda do . I guess the other thing that scares me is; are my boys going to be the odd ones out? What happens in JH and HS when they have to shower after gym? I really feel like I made the right decision for my boys...I just hope they feel that way too!

If someone looked at me like a freak because I chose not to mutilate my son, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to spend time with them. So that part wouldn't bother me.

People around here are more surprised than grossed out or anything else, because circumcision is SOP. Anyone I've talked to in depth about it actually seems genuinely interested when I explain why, cite statistics, etc. If a circumcision "experience" conversation comes up, my contribution is just something along the lines of "I didn't circ DS because I couldn't bear to be responsible for him losing part of his body and going through intense pain for a cosmetic procedure." Most of the time the topic gets dropped. Haha

They won't be the odd ones out, though. Circumcision is becoming less and less common. Don't worry, you did the right thing. and if they protest, you can always remind them that they can get it done later - and HOW it has to be done. I think my brother only complained once, before our mother explained and he realized what had to happen for him to "look like the other guys".

Originally Posted by KaleidoscopeEyes nope. im an extremely vocal intactivist. if someone thinks that being intact is wrong or gross they dont deserve my respect and i wouldnt give two craps what they thought anyway.

Totally agree.