Sick sense of humour...

[Smowball]

My son had a friend round. Friend told me his mum was in hospital with lung cancer. I was really shocked and really felt for him seeing as I lost my own mum to cancer. Son looked even more shocked and said he didnt realise as she had looked so well when he had last seen her. Friend then proceeds to txt his dad with "Isnt mum in hospital with cancer". "yes" came the reply.

Turns out the whole thing was a joke which the boy found incredibly funny. Needless to say son hasnt spoken to him since.

What a sick thing to joke about!

[B00]

Kids do though don't they?

Can't explain why the dad also thought it funny, but I'd see it's par the course for teens. No malice intended, their humour just isn't 'fine tuned' for want of a better phrase.

[emmie]

not sure i understand this, if the father said the mother was in hospital with cancer, how come she isn't.

[Kiki-frog]

I don't understand, Smow. Was the boy making it all up then? And his dad backed up his story? If so, that is a really weird thing to do. Strange family!

[emmie]

if anyone, be they 10 or 100 think that having cancer is funny i would wonder if they have a screw loose.

[Canary42]

Very sick.

[Smowball]

Have no idea why dad txt back agreeing for a laugh, maybe it wasnt the dad at all! Either way, at 13 yrs old think he was old enough to know it isnt something you joke about.

[Sqad]

\\\\\Kids do though don't they? \\\

No!

Perhaps this generation may.........but i am not familiar with that concept.

[jackthehat]

People often joke about 'things' of which they have no direct experience. Your own experience with cancer stripped the *joke* of any potential comedic value (!?) that there may have been.

It seems a pretty distasteful scenario to have used to elicit a few laughs....

[emmie]

smow, did you have a word with the boy, because that is the stupidest thing i have heard in a very long while. As to the dad, if indeed it was him should be thankful his wife doesn't have cancer.

[B00]

As you so tirelessly point out to us all Sqad....

[woofgang]

children sometimes "joke" about things that are worrying them, as a way of talking about it? Has he lost a friend/relative to cancer recently or had any recent experience of it?

[Ann]

Disgraceful but sadly indicitive of this generation I'm afraid. Maybe the Dad is getting neighbours to collect money for his "poor sick wife" under false pretences. It has been known before.

[Smowball]

I don't really know this boy. Was going to speak to him but son didnt want me to. Yes I am probably a tad more sensitive to the subject but most of you seem to think it was very poor taste too.

[B00]

it IS poor taste, and maybe that's why the kid thought it funny?

As ive said, kids haven't got a finely tuned sense of humour, and can't see that some things just aren't funny.

Heck we even have adult comedians who find death and illnesses funny- what chance do kids have?

[emmie]

if it was the father who texted back what chance does the boy have. Very strange.

[Ann]

Totally agree Boo ...........

[jake-the-peg]

Too difficult to know really.

Maybe she smokes and this is in the back of his mind and he ended up expressing his subconcious fears in this way.

Difficult to read too much into it.

As it happens my wife was diagnosed with cancer last week - and it looks pretty serious.

She's been allowed home now pending investigations as an out-patient and right now she looks absolutely fine, you'd have no idea so you really can't tell by looking at them.

Right now it's pretty tough and rather emotional but personally I just find this odd rather than offensive but people deal with such things differently and I can easilly imagine other people in the same situation finding it offensive

[emmie]

i would find it offensive, lost my o/h, and then brother in law to cancer, and my mum has it.

[Smowball]

jake - I am so sorry about your wife's news. Hopefully she will make a speedy recovery x

[jake-the-peg]

That would be nice Snowball - unfortunately the statistics are not on her side.

This is a genetic condition that we have known about for 10 years but you still never expect it to actually trigger.

The thing is that our children have are old enough at 18 and 19 to know that they have a 50:50 chance oh having inherited the gene.

One might think that such a situation can hardly be worse but when I was at school I had a schoolmate who had and died from leukemia and a cannot really imagine losing a child through this.

I would say that I suspect many predispositions to this nasty disease may be inherited although we only know a few of the genes as of yet.

If you do have it in the familly I urge you to know the signs and get any oddities checked as soon as possible - I don't think it would have helped us but there are thousands of people who die from cancer needlessly.

And if anyone reading this is a smoker do think about the conversation we've had to have with our children