A lesson on tact

Okay this lovely post is inspired by my trip home yesterday from Chippewa Falls to Columbus. First and foremost, I want to say that despite all I wanted to say to this individual, I held my tongue because I was taught how to be gracious and tactful.

Alright, so just a quick little important message to everyone in the entire world, no matter the size of a pregnant lady whether she looks like 15 mack trucks plus an entire military fleet of tanks, do not under any circumstances elude to her largeness. Let me let you in on a little secret, pregnant women know that they become large and their every growing bellys become like the state of Texas, this does not need to be pointed out.

Let's move onto my story, I had just entered onto interstate 39 outside of Rockford, when my darling Emma said she had to go potty. Now, of course we had just stopped about 45 minutes ago so I was a little on edge but she said she had to go poo poo, and I didn't want that stinking up my car.  So I see a gas station at the first available exit and we take it. While my beautiful 2 year old is stinking up the place in her stall and I am holding the door for her, a rather rude inebriated woman comes into the bathroom. I do not make eye contact nor do I intend to engage her in conversation but she takes one look at me and says "wow, are you due?" To which I reply, "no I still have 8 weeks." Then the conversation goes "oh must be twins.." "nope..." and then "wow, it's going to be a huge baby." She then goes into her stall and fumbles for the toilet paper and lets out an expletive--despite having seen my young daughter Lily standing right next to me.

Now I'm just going to assume that she is not an OB/GYN but you know what they say when you assume....anyway, according to my doctor (who by the way is in fact an OB/GYN), I am measuring right on for my due date and the baby may be about mid-7's....which last time I checked, mid-7's does not a huge baby make.  The simple fact is, I did not ask for her opinion on my belly. I was not complaining and looking as if I was extremely miserable and uncomfortable. I know that my belly is huge and I'm aware that some people just need to point out the obvious but here are appropriate responses to a large pregnant belly:
     1. Wow, look at the beautiful belly!
     2. You look gorgeous/great/fabulous
     3. That baby bump looks great!
     4. When are you due? (only use this if you know for SURE that the lady is pregnant!)
Or something along those lines, if you can't give a compliment don't say something negative or what you may think is funny especially to a complete stranger.  I don't go up to random people in the store and say "wow, you look like your having octuplets that are about 5 months past due...." even if they look as if a baby is going to fall out of them at that very moment.

For the same reason we have tried to teach Lily that using the word fat to describe someone is not okay (we stress particularily that it may hurt the person's feelings, although it may be true), it is not okay to go and insult a pregnant lady. Granted both individuals the overweight (fat) one and the pregnant one may in fact elicit such a response, they are well aware of their current condition.

So next time you see a pregnant lady keep in mind she knows how big she looks, don't go asking if she's having twins and don't state that the baby is going to be huge. Because more than likely you have no idea how big the baby is going to be and unless you're the one pushing it out, it doesn't matter one bit to you!