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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!!

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