During the first part of my pregnancy, I heard and read that when you finally sport a noticeable baby bump, the world treats you differently. Men give up their subway or bus seats for you. People hold doors open. Strangers smile while staring at your stomach. For the most part, I’ve found this to be true. However….<\/p>\n
On Monday, a co-worker I don’t know very well came into my office and asked when I’m due. I told her early September.<\/p>\n
“Whoa,” she said. “You’ve still got got a few more months!”<\/p>\n
Thinking she was referring to the coming heat wave and how miserable that could potentially be for a pregnant woman, I said, “Yeah, pretty much the whole summer.”<\/p>\n
“No, I mean, you look like you’re ready to pop now!”<\/p>\n
What the F?<\/p>\n
First of all, no I don’t. Second, even if I do, SHUT THE FUCK UP.<\/p>\n
Why, oh why, oh why do people think it’s OK to comment on the size of pregnant women? To be fair, I’ve had as many “Wow, you look great; you don’t look like you’re already seven months” as I have “Wow, you’re really getting big” comments, but the latter hit me harder. And it’s not just because it’s a blow to the self-esteem. It’s also kinda shocking that people can be so incredibly rude.<\/p>\n
It’s considered bad form to call a fat person fat, even when they are fat. Or to flippantly tell someone she is overusing the tanning bed or bronzer. But calling a pregnant woman “huge” or “ready to pop”…for some reason, that’s OK.<\/p>\n
I never know how to respond. Should I have replied to above-mentioned co-worker, “Actually, I’m not that big. I just think you, like a great deal of society, have no concept of what a fully pregnant woman looks like.”? Should I have told her she’s a rude ignoramus and that I now get to feel like a cow for the rest of the day (as if I wouldn’t have, even without her comment)?<\/p>\n
Instead I smiled and said, “Yep, the baby is healthy and growing in there.” And I’ve been avoiding that co-worker ever since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the first part of my pregnancy, I heard and read that when you finally sport a noticeable baby bump, the world treats you differently. Men give up their subway or bus seats for you. People hold doors open. Strangers smile while staring at your stomach. For the most part, I’ve found this to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}