Skip to main content

Crossing the line

Now I've always assumed that in polite society "people" are not going to ask certain questions, like "Are you going to have another baby?". I am constantly amazed that people feel that they know me well enough to ask me that question. I think they confuse friendliness with being friends.

I was at a birthday party with Lucas and one of the other moms I'd literally just met, asked me that. Well, as you can imagine, my mind boggled with all the potential answers, none of them designed to be kind to the questioner.

In the end, I did what I always do, I made some non-committal answer and turned the question back to her. I mean, who knows what I could have been going through! (I thought about bursting out crying at the question..) I have resigned myself to the fact that this is my peer group and since I don't want to alienate the parents of my son's friends, I will conform to the group's norms (meaning I won't shock them into beating a hasty retreat and whispering about me, but will restrain myself.)

This ranks with "May I touch your belly?" to the pregnant moms. (No you may not, unless I know you really, really well and then only if I say so, otherwise back off and step away from the belly.)

I remember one year our good friends were hosting their annual Christmas party and the husband asked me what I wanted to drink. I normally don't drink and said water, to which he laughed and said, "Are you pregnant?". Which it so happened, I was and we weren't ready to tell anyone. My husband and I exchanged looks and laughed it off, chalked it up to our host having one too many to drink and his wife not being around to box his ears. I believe she shares my sensibilities on this issue.

It makes me curious as to what kinds of questions other people would consider as "crossing the line"?

That's enough head-hurting about things for one day, back to the highlight of my day - teaching Liam to jump and getting inserts for Lucas' 3-ring binder for his Pokemon cards. Hurray!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is your 'bread & butter' conversation?

I am anxious to get back to the playgroups with my Moms group, and talk with some of the other moms because I want to know what they talk to their husbands about at the end of the day. If I were to truly tell my husband what goes on with my day? Well, the conversation would be inane and irrelevant. Gunnar: "How was your day honey?" Big smile. Me: "You know the usual. Lucas got up late this morning and was crabby because he didn't have enough time to play before breakfast and Liam pulled off my tiny earring, you know, the one I was so excited about getting because I thought he wouldn't notice it, and I could wear earrings again? Anyways, he pulled it off, and I grabbed it from him and set it down so I could deal with him appropriately, and I forgot about it, but when I went back to look for it I couldn't find it. It might have gotten wiped off the table when I was cleaning, so I spent part of the day sifting through the garbage looking for it, then I looked ...

Week 4 - Part 1, Fredericksburg

And here are my pictures from Fredericksburg! A bit different than you may have expected. We walked around the National Museum of the Pacific, but hardly had the chance to look in much detail (antsy 3-year old took care of that).   My husband's conclusion was while there may be some things that are German (like on the menu), some are definitely not.  But perhaps they were when the Fredericksburg immigrants moved there?  Immigrants do cling to what they know and bring those with them, while their home country evolves. Anyways, we had fun walking around and relaxing.  My dad didn't get a chance to do too much (G and I took the time to run away and put my cousin in charge of the boys and my dad).  So we had a break.  We had plans to do more sight-seeing on our way back, but we (me and G) were too tired to try. Tuesday 28th June : Cycle 2.  After checking my blood counts, I was able to get cycle 2 - Yaay!  My appointment was 9:30 am, and I ...

Summer vacation so far

2-yr old: "Waaah..!" wail, bawl. 7-yr old: "I'm sorry..I didn't mean to hurt you." 5 minutes later. 2-yr old: "Waaah..!" wail, bawl. 7-yr old: "I'm sorry..are you ok?" Loop again 10 more times today. The boys walking hand-in-hand up the stairs. 2-yr old: "My water." 7-yr old: "No, my water." 2-yr old: "No! Mine!" 7-yr old: "No! My water!" And so on for another 5 minutes. 7-yr old: "Get off me! Get off me!" Various noises, "....Ow, Ow, Ow!" 7-yr old: "Waaah..!" wail, bawl. Mama needs to sign up big brother for more full-time summer camps. Hosted Mom's club ice-cream bash at our house. In the backyard. 28 moms with at least 1 child each. You do the Math. Yikes! Papa getting a big squeeze hug from 2-year old. 7-yr old getting a big, smoochy kiss goodnight from baby brother. Splashing in the pool with the boys. Priceless.