How do you keep your skin thick? 

“You asked how to heal after heartbreak. Stop thinking about yourself, and start trying to repair the damage you have done to your precious daughter. She had no choice about getting involved in your mess, and think about what you have put her through. Quit thinking with your libido. Your child is so much more important.”
Email: qetuoqetuo@aol.com

Something is in the air. Or, maybe I’ve just put myself way out on the limb this week.

Because when I blogged about Natural Births Vs. C-Sections at BabyCenter recently, the comments poured in from women everywhere (100+!). Clearly, “Cara” was hurt by what I’d written, and she lashed out at me this morning:

“Let me begin by saying: You should be ashamed of yourself. I mean really, the kind of shame that stops you in your tracks. You need to truly take a moment to look at what kind of person you are. Now that has been said let me continue on by saying this. Who are you to judge anyone’s choice of birth?…I wonder why then you feel the need to pity me? Because my vagina did not stretch out? Well I for one feel sorry for you. Because unlike you, we have satisfied husbands and will not need labiaplasty.”
(BabyCenter took her comments down today.)

Bloggers talk about having “a blogger’s skin.” Mine is growing, slowly, but sometimes I think I might be too sensitive for this. Maybe it’s time to go back into my shell.

If any single parent writer knows how it feels to get hundreds of angry emails a month, it’s Jane Ganahl, the “Single Minded” San Francisco Chronicle columnist whose book Naked on the Page: the Misadventures of My Unmarred Midlife comes out tomorrow out in paperback.

Stay tuned: I’m going to be giving away her book here soon!

Single parents, tell me what kind of armor do you wear?
 

How do you protect yourself from angry strangers, jealous outsiders, or any other uninvited persons?