Things Never to Say To A Pregnant Woman
There are some things that you should never say to a pregnant woman. They seem obvious don’t they? And yet, everyone who has been pregnant has had something inappropriate said to them.
Size seems like an easy topic to avoid and yet, every other person wants to discuss the size of your belly with statements like:
"Wow, you are huge," and all other variations on general bigness including: "Are you carrying twins?," "Are your dates right?," and "How much weight have you gained?"
And its evil twin: "Wow, you are tiny, is everything okay?"
A co-worker asked a Twitter friend: “What happened? Did you eat yourself?”
There are the scary labour stories disguised as advice such as:
"Labour is the worst thing you will every go through."
"Did you hear the story about the pregnant woman who…" (followed up by various rare and terrible diseases).
"Don’t let your husband see the baby come out, he will never look at you the same way."
The Husband Angle. Men do have an awkward role to play, but they are not immune from saying stupid things to their pregnant wives:
How about when the man says: "We are pregnant!" (If he did 4.5 months than he could claim the we.)
"Are you sure you want more cookies/cake/chips?"
Someone on Twitter said her husband watched her folding the laundry and then said, “The underwear just keeps getting bigger, doesn’t it?” She got paid back in foot rubs.
There are the things that people say when something has gone wrong that are in the guise of trying to make you feel better:
When I was on bedrest, in the hospital, more than one person said to me, "You are so lucky to lie around and do nothing."
A friend who had to use a surrogate got told, "You must be so happy to not have to carry around the baby."
To another friend who had a premature baby: "At least you didn’t have to get too big." (Yes, really.)
But the worst thing to ever say to a woman with a belly?
"When are you due?" Only to find out that her baby was born weeks ago – or she isn’t even pregnant. It’s best just to stay off the topic of pregnancy all together and stick to the weather.
So, what is the worst thing anyone ever said to you?
Want more chaos? Last year, I wondered if Snooki and her kind of sexuality was a threat to equality.
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