STARRBABY'S BLOG

Starrbaby

7 things you can do . . .
Wednesday, August 24, 2005

. . . to piss off a pregnant woman or new mom.

1) Offer to come help after the baby is born. Proceed to do so by holding and rocking the baby and playing with it and handing the child back to the mother when he/she cries, needs a new diaper, etc. Helping means cooking, cleaning or letting mommy take a nap. Doing the fun stuff is not help. Picking out things for the nursury and decorating it is not helping either. Once again, that is the fun stuff. After having to put up with all the crap of child bearing, it is just plain wrong to steal the fun part of parenthood in the name of "helping".

2) Saying negative things about the name(s) she has chosen. This includes "Oh don't name him that! All the kids I knew named that were naughty."

3) Telling her that her house is a mess when she's 36 weeks pregnant. 'Nuff said there.

4) Telling her horror stories about when you gave birth.

5) Contradicting anything she says her doctor told her to do.

6) Sneaking around and feeding her child something that she specifically request that he not be fed. Why do people do this? Mommy could say, don't feed him strawberries, and though there are no strawberries around, someone will find some and shove them in the kid's mouth.

7) Call every day just to make sure that she didn't have the baby/babies and not tell you.

I'm sure I left a BUNCH out. Help me out here, preggos and mommies. Add to my list.

P.S. Looks like I'm gonna make it to full term *dances*.

COMMENTS

Saturday, September 10, 2005 5:06 PM

SONG


Woo-hoo on making it to full term! WTG Mom! That is no easy task with a multiples pregnancy.

Sounds like someone (or several of them) are making life miserable. My advice: don't listen to interfering busybodies; rather, surround yourself instead with people whose judgment you respect and who give you support instead of undermining you.

More advice -- protect your boundaries. Just because you've got a new baby or two, your house isn't grand central station for anyone who feels like dropping by. Get caller ID and use it. Reach out to the people you WANT to have around, and rudely avoid even speaking to the people you don't. You are about to have babies (or maybe by now you have your newborns!) -- you have every right in the world to be selfish and sheltered from unneeded stress.

And if people offer to help, by all means take them up on it, but in the next breath TELL THEM specifically how they can help. "Bring food." "Clean the bathroom." "Fold the laundry." "Run these errands." Practice saying these phrases in front of a mirror until they flow naturally. I mean it. Especially with two, and breastfeeding them -- you're gonna need help.


POST YOUR COMMENTS

You must log in to post comments.

YOUR OPTIONS

OUR SPONSOR