I am sitting here in tears over a conversation I just had. I feel like a total slimebucket, and I'm too emotional to know if that's justified or not.

I am working on a freelance article that I got backed into by someone who thought he was doing me a favor. It has been a nightmare from the get-go, and is the first, and will be the last time I work for these people.

At any rate, the woman I was interviewing is the principal of a startup high school. She kept talking about how serving children was her life's work and a calling and blah blah blah. It seemed logical to me to ask if she had children of her own. She said no. I said, speaking from MY experience as a birthmom, that I taught at the college level for a number of years as a way of connecting with my son, even though I hadn't gotten to raise him.

She just called back and raked me over the coals for being so insensitive, and for assuming that my experience translates to everyone else's, that it wasn't a choice for her and her husband not to have children, it's very painful, etc, and now she doesn't trust me and wants to see the article (a big no-no) -- not to mention that she thought it was horribly rude of me to do what I did, which *I* saw as making conversation. How was i supposed to know?!

I fell all over myself apologizing about 10 times, explained my situation, and she just kept telling me over and over that I shouldn't make assumptions and how awful it was of me to do that -- completely dismissing the fact that I understand what it's like not to have children, and how much that pains ME.

I explained that it is very hard for me to talk about the adoption, and that when I run across a woman who seems to be in similar circumstances, I feel a kinship and like to try to talk about it. She blew that off, too.

Am I wrong? I don't know what else to do but sit here and cry.

:~(

CB