While you are expecting a baby, you can face many difficulties: nausea, swelling, sluggishness, again nausea, countless tests. Women are ready for all this. But there is one thing that cannot be prepared for.
Sometimes it seems that tactlessness is our national disease. “When to get married? When will you give birth? When is the second? ” These endless questions can be poured in from anyone: from neighbors, mother’s friends, distant relatives, barely familiar people. But it turns out that not only our compatriots are faced with such unceremoniousness. Young mother Laura Myers said what was the most difficult for her during pregnancy. And it turned out to be just tactlessness – she simply did not know how to react to it.
Laura explained that she and her husband were planning a child. She prepared mentally and physically for the fact that it would sometimes be uncomfortable, that her body would change, that a change in her lifestyle awaited her, for the fact that her career would fade into the background. But she did not think that her acquaintances would create the main difficulty for her.
“I was worried about how my appearance was changing. I was swollen just before our eyes. Or so it seemed to me. Some new emotions and feelings appeared. I had long conversations with myself. They helped me to accept my new self ”, – .
But what the woman was definitely not ready for was talking about her own appearance. For some reason, almost everyone, even complete strangers, considered it entirely acceptable to make some comment about Laura’s new body. “People just concentrated on my belly. They saw nothing else but him, ”the woman wonders.
In the morning, the barista at Starbucks asks how long she is and says that Laura is just tiny for eight months. The cashier at the supermarket shakes his head and says that Laura’s belly is gigantic. Huge. Incredible. “One friend told me that I look pretty good, despite the pounds I have gained. The neighbor claims that I was just created to carry children, and I am doing a great job with my belly. And some guy on the bus said that I looked like a ball ”- all this Laura heard in just one day.
On the one hand, pregnancy is a wonderful phenomenon, and people want to say something to the expectant mother about this. “When they tell me that I’m huge, it’s actually a compliment. They are happy to see my growing belly, because it means that the pregnancy is going well, the baby is developing well. Pregnancy seems like a gift to me too. So I understand their reaction. “
At the same time, Laura neatly hints: such attention to a woman’s body cannot but strain. Will you like it if everyone you meet pays attention to any feature of your physique? Even if you are proud of your biceps or abs, sooner or later it will start to infuriate if everyone tries to touch them. Add to that the fact that a pregnant woman is packed full of hormones that make her emotional responses unpredictable. You tell her about her stomach – and she is in tears. Cool, isn’t it?
Laura managed to convince herself that all the comments about her size, the shape of the abdomen, the gained kilos are in fact compliments. But not everyone succeeds. And not everyone wants to discuss their appearance and their body at such a vulnerable moment. Let’s be a little more tactful.