Society and The Preggos

I used to think that, like the elderly, handicapped and otherwise more fragile members of society, pregnant women had a free ticket to special treatment. Things like, if you’re waiting in a restaurant foyer, someone might offer you the last seat instead of taking it for themselves. Or, when you see a pregnant woman pull up to a shopping mall or store, you might allow them to take the better parking spot so they don’t have to walk as far to the entrance. Or how about making an attempt at controlling your children from swinging bags, toys and other deadly weapons around and inevitably nailing an expecting mother’s belly square in the stomach. These were general assumptions I made about societal etiquette – all of which have been proven undeniably wrong.

In just the past three months, I’ve had a woman ram me in the belly with her cart at Target in a mad dash for the Dollar Days rack, a teenager nearly run me over to get a prime parking spot at the mall, a middle-aged man look me up and down as if pregnancy was equivalent to leprosy while he spread himself out along the last bench of the waiting area at The Cheesecake Factory and countless people huff in annoyance as they wait for me to waddle through a doorway – if they even bother to hold the door open at all.

It’s OK – I’m durable, but I am continually amazed at how people treat people. Whatever happened to common courtesy, chivalry and taking care of those around us who need help? While pregnancy only lasts for nine or ten months, I think about people in wheelchairs, on walkers or other physical challenges that probably experience this for their entire lives! What has happened to us when we are just too busy to care about anyone but ourselves? You just never know how monumental a simple gesture of kindness could be when that’s all someone needs to make their life just a teeny bit easier. I wish everyone could slow their day down just a tad to help someone else out once in awhile – at the very least, we preggos would certainly thank them for it!