The question never to ask of someone you don't know....

[Food Lady]

So I was at work tonight, shopping. (It's actually my day off.) I was minding my own business when some lady came up to me, went "awww," patted my stomach and asked me "how many months?" My response was a curt, "I'm not pregnant." It's bad enough she assumed, but to touch me?? I'm not really mad, but amazed people do that sort of thing. stupid monthly bloat....*sigh*

[myswtghst]

We had this discussion at work recently. My feeling on the issue is I would never ever ever congratulate someone on being pregnant without either a) them telling me themself, or b) a trusted source confirming.

My college roommate and her sisters tend to carry all their weight in their midsection, while remaining skinny in the legs and arms, so if she put on weight, she ended up looking preggers. That taught me quick not to assume!

[Anakah]

I don't care if someone is pregnant to me it's NEVER okay to just touch someone else. If and when I am pregnant and someone touches me like that... I will tell them to remove their hands before I start to scream. It's a total violation.

I hate hearing the: Are you pregnant? It's okay when you are and you can say with pride: I am ___ months along. But when you're not, it's embarassing and its very rude.

At my job at Mikasa I had a really evil supervisior who one day out of the blue asked me if I was pregnant. I returned with: No, I'm just fat, thanks. And I wasn't even that big back then...

Did she have that horrified expression after?

My fiance rubbed my stomach in public and one of his friends says: So, when are you due? I glared, growled and my fiance pulled me away before I said anything mean.

[Alfie]

I don't care if someone is pregnant to me it's NEVER okay to just touch someone else. If and when I am pregnant and someone touches me like that... I will tell them to remove their hands before I start to scream. It's a total violation.

I will always remember when my mum saw my friend for the first time in ages, and knew that my friend was pregnant. Straight hand to the stomach action. I almost yelled at her. I don't know how I would cope if I ever fall pregnant. I like my personal space thankyouverymuch.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Unless you see a baby actually emerging from a woman's body, it's ALWAYS a bad idea to ask that.

[reformedwaitress]

Oh good lord I used to hate that and those stupid questions. It was pretty obvious I was pregnant, but is it really anyone else's business? And don't even THINK about touching me unless you want to get a death glare. My "personal bubble" got much bigger when I was pregnant. My friends and family didn't get to touch my stomach, I'm SURE as hell not letting some random stranger touch me!

I almost hit a woman in a store for doing that to me -- I didn't know her from Adam and she came up and started rubbing and talking to my stomach. My boyfriend at the time grabbed both my arms and then said "Ma'am, if you want to walk out of here, I suggest getting your hands OFF my girlfriend right now!"

And the lady had the nerve to humph and get rude with us!

[Boozy]

My best friend is desperate to conceive. She has a condition that makes it very unlikely, and ironically, this same condition makes her carry excess weight around her middle. I'd want to punch someone if they ever walked up to her and asked if she was pregnant. It would be so heartbreaking for her.

[TheRoo]

I can't imagine violating anyone's personal space like that. One of my friends wives was pregnant last year, and I was sitting next to her at a restaurant. She said that the baby was kicking, and she grabbed my hand and put it on her stomach. Even though she did it, it really weirded me out, although my friend didn't seem surprised that some guy had his hand on his wife's stomach.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Back when I was going thru compulsive eating disorder and was carrying a lot of weight, I once had a woman tutting at me. Being very snappy and defensive at the time, due to school bullying, I turned and said, "What's your problem?" She replied, "It's horrible to see schoolgirls pregnant." I replied, "For your information, I'm a virgin. I'm just fat." She went bright red and walked away. And then, I went home and stuffed my face.

[Misanthropical]

Lace Neil Singer, I was getting that from old ladies when I was pregnant with my oldest.

I was 22 years old and married, but that didn't stop old ladies from making total asses out of themselves.

[Bliss]

Unless you see a baby actually emerging from a woman's body, it's ALWAYS a bad idea to ask that.

And if you see a baby emerging from a woman's body it's bloody stupid to ask it.

[hawkchick11]

I had a few women ask me if I was pregnant before I even knew I was... that was odd. I'm not a very big person, and I didn't get very big when I was pregnant.. really, I didn't even show much until I was 7 months along.

I never had someone put their hand on my stomach, I would have killed them if they had. During my sister's pregnancy, we were at Target and she had not one but two old ladies put their hands on her stomach. She kind of laughed off the first one but she got really bitchy with the second one.

[CrazedClerk]

I for the most part think I'm pretty decent at distinguishing a pregnancy bump from simple body mass, but I know sometimes it just ain't that easy.

A couple of times when pregnant customers come into the store, I've casually asked "when's the baby due?" but that's the only question I ask on the matter and I never, EVER touch them! Unlike others, I DO have common sense.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

And I used to complain about total strangers feeling up my hair...

After the gropefest at my Gramma Bond's funeral, I cut my hair short. *shivers*

[Boozy]

This one's for you, Shironu:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/60170

Its an audio file from The Onion Radio News. Hilarious.