Is it really impolite?

Church is where we talk about family even to strangers. We need to know the members as if they were family. I would ask again. Maybe he needs to talk. Good post. Reminds me of a man I know that went through a bitter devorce. When he opened up he talked out his problems. Helped him greatly.

No i dont think it was. although when you meet people for the first time you probably shudnt get right into detail about their personal lives, some people might take it as an offence as i presume that American did so.

i don't think that you are being impolite at all... there is nothing wrong with asking that question at all... for me, i would feel a little bit uncomfortable if a person who i just know ask me this question... but i really don't think that it is rude at all... so please don't worry so much about it...

You asked about his family, not his problems. You have not been descriptive enough about the whole conversation. There are giant chuncks missing. Besides I'm not sure I want to help someone ask about peoples children.

I don't think your question is impolite. I don't want to ask personal questions in the first meeting because it may get a wrong impression unless you have a strong reason for that. Who know... He might think that you had a feeling toward him and that's why he felt so uncomfortable with it. I know that you might ask this question for breaking a silence, for instance. Or perhaps, this guy was having problems with his children. So, he didn't want you to remind him about it.

No unless he medically could not have kids, or for other reason couldnt and it of course wasnt or could not be obvious to you.

Most of the times we spea out things that may be imolite to people..but we only identify sometimess ..like you have just did..

Hi there, I don't think you were impolite. I ask questions all the time when I meet new people. Perhaps he is separated from his child and it hurts him or something like that. But you were not impolite, just striking up a conversation. Don't feel bad about it, you did nothing wrong that I can see. In fact, I think you were rather friendly. Take care now...and let me say...I have two grown children and seven grandchildren! And I don't mind telling it!LOL!!!

Asking someone if they have children isn't being rude! When people are getting to know each other it's a question that's often asked. If the guy has a problem then he needs to learn how to handle it in public and not make others feel uncomfortable. I'm sorry you had this experience and I'm sure most people wouldn't react the same way. You must have found someone who has some sort of personal problem and can't deal with it.

It's a random subjective question and answer. Nothing wrong with the question, as long as you didn't questioning him in purpose. I mean, he may have some trauma of past time which we did not know. Or this guy is a bad temper guy who take it as a verbal insult to him. Or he might just have a bad mood because of somewhere stress brought from somewhere before he went to Church, maybe he want to seek calmness by going to Church. There are many scenarios of this. But if by verbally, it sounds strange if you just greet him and know him for first time, and asked for his privacy stuff (in his opinion). That's what I can think of describing his change of mood.

Hi Mengchuijie, I dont think you sounded impolite. I mean it seems rather normal for people to have kids, and if they dont for a reason that is emotional to them, they should understand that upon meeting someone new, they wouldnt know. Its a common question I would think. To me it sounds like the person you asked was a bit rude. Sometimes its hard to hold your emotions, but in your case, you had no clue and was only trying to get to know the person better. Bay Lay Gray xx

I don't think it's rude, but maybe he had tried hard to have kids, but he couldn't or something. There are always some things that we don't know about a new person's past. I once read somewhere that a couple who've been dying to have kids have tried SO MANY different kind of things to be able to conceive, but they still can't have any kids. Throughout the years, they say it feels SO painful to see other people with kids or other people talking about their own kids. So there's always THAT possibility: maybe you just touched a sensitive topic for HIM personally.

Well i dont see anything that is impolite there. He just answered your question. What's impolite is if he is a snob or he did not bother top answer the question. Dont be too sensitive thats alright.