I remember the first time a complete stranger asked me if I was expecting twins (I totally wasn’t). I was nine months pregnant with my third baby and I still had another month to go. It was August and I was big, sweaty, crabby and I wanted a blended frappe, gestational diabetes be damned.
The Starbucks guy looked up and down my generous frame with big eyes and he good-naturedly asked, “So, do you have twins in there?”
My jaw dropped. I gasped sharply. I clutched my invisible pearls.
“Excuse me?” I responded, clearly offended. Do I look that big? Twins — are you serious, I wondered to myself.
“No, I’m not. But, thank you!” I sneered as I grabbed my frappe and waddled out of there like a fat bat out of hell. I may have even developed chub rub, I was in such a hurry.
I was so embarrassed. Not because a person thought I was big enough to be carrying twins — no twins, just a fat baby boy who would eventually be born at just under ten pounds — but because he felt completely at ease and within his rights to ask me something so personal. He literally asked me how many humans I was smuggling in my reproductive parts. It was rude. Then it was shameful. Then it just made me completely livid.
Like, how dare he. I guzzled down my frappe but it didn’t erase the icky feelings I felt from this stranger’s question.
Jill Krause from Baby Rabies just went through something similar and she has a suggestion — a life hack, if you will — for non-pregnant people and what they can and cannot say to a pregnant woman. It’s pretty spot on.
That’s it. Simple yet effective for those compelled to make a comment to a person who is currently incubating a child. Thanks for the life hack, Jill!
Has anyone ever said anything offensive to you when you were pregnant?
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Image source: YouTube screengrab
