Customer thought I was pregnant!

[Supermarket Slave Girl]

I had my first baby when I was 21, second at 23 and third at 26.

Sounds like I would have coped some flak about being a young mum.

[Mel]

See, I was a bit of the opposite. On kid number 3 I got tired of people asking if I was pregnant when it was obvious I was, and getting lectures from people whose business it was none about how I was too young to have kids! (I was 24). I just started saying, "Nope, I'm just fat." My sister told me I was being a bitch, but after the umpteenth time of being told that 24 is too young to breed, and how I was a bad mom for breastfeeding, I just didn't care anymore.

It happens to everyone hon, when you're not pregnant, someone will think you are, and when you are, someone will tell you that you've really let yourself go and need to lose some weight.

Wait...24 is too young to have a kid? Since when? And breastfeeding is bad?? I'm confused!

[Broomjockey]

who on earth would say anyone was a bad mom for breastfeeding?

FRATCHING!

No, we've had too many arguments on this site over this topic, no more conversation about this. *points to fratching* Over there!

[tollbaby]

I'm a bit baffled by this, but I guess not every pregnancy is as obvious as mine. My boobs hurt so much a week after I conceived, I took a pregnancy test right away and confirmed that I was, in fact, preggers.

There's this nifty thing called "preggo brain" that pregnant women experience. Sometimes their brains just aren't turned on. It happens. She probably just meant what would you recommend, but it came out wrong. Besides, pregnant women always figure that everyone around them is doing the same thing

[tropicsgoddess]

It irritates me that a girl with a little tummy to some idjit = ZOMG she's gotta be pregnant! For the most part it's easy to tell the difference between a (very) pregnant tummy vs. I'm not fat, I'm fluffy tummy (Thank you Gabriel Iglesias). Preggo women's belly button sticks out and the tummies are much rounder (and if they show it to you) has somewhat of a sheen to it.

[kokopuff3]

Background: I work in a bookstore.

*I’m showing a (skinny but pregnant female) customer our pregnancy and childbirth section.*
SC: Wow. There are a lot of different ones go choose from.
Me: Yeah. *Points out some of the more popular ones*
SC: (Nods, serious) Which one are you using?
Me: I, uh, I just read dfmkjlk jslkjfdsjf... (mumbles and walks away)
*I go find my friend and coworker*
Me: Some lady just asked me which pregnancy book I'm using. She wants a recommendation.
CW:
I'll admit that I need to lose about 15 pounds, but in no way do I look pregnant! That was just mean, and rude, and made me feel like crap. I don't know if she was trying to be mean or if she was just a complete idiot. Either way, it still hurt.

I had something similar happen to me at work. Now, i am fairly large, but i do not look pregnant. I was in the drive-thru, and some lady looks at me and says "Dear, are you expecting?" I replied no, and she said i needed to lay off the *fast food*. People can be such douches.

[evilhomer]

Nobody should ever... EVER ask a woman if she's pregnant. At best it will only hurt the feelings of the woman. At worst it can be utterly devastating. When we lost our first baby, my wife still showed for months after. Any good meaning, but totally thoughtless and insensitive question regarding it brought all the bad memories flooding back. It's a hard enough thing to get through without having these reminders in the moments where you've managed to put it out of your mind. You don't know, you don't ask, simple.

[RavenStarr]

Wasn't there someone ( I think he was a comedian) that said: Never ask a woman if she's pregnant, unless you see a baby coming out? Or something like that.

I'm thinking Bill Cosby. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

[Andara Bledin]

A couple of comedians have had that as part of their routine. Because it's a universal truth that will likely continue to crop up over time.

TV Tropes has a page on the subject with quite a list of examples in various media, along with a comment from a troper who, "belongs to a "vent about idiot customers" online community."

^-.-^

[Amina516]

Baby doesn't start kicking until later, a lot of women don't show that much at that point, unless you were trying/know you have a hard time with your charts/otherwise suspect that you might be pregnant, I'm not sure why you would know at that point.

Babies start to kick exactly during that time, @ 16-20 weeks. MOST people figure theres something "off" whether its a missed period, nausea/vomiting, changes of mood, hurty boobs and other stuff way before they hit 16 weeks. There are pregnancy tests that can tell just and week after a missed perioud, so no its not common to be 5 months and then suddenly find out. Alot of people that dont find out til later may be in denial, or dont have a regular menstral cycle to rely on as an indicator.

Though I had a sister in law that went to the ER with abdominal pain and came home with my nephew...Good times. Another story for another time......

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I was three months along before I even started to SUSPECT I might be pregnant. I didn't even start to get suspiciously thick until four months along.

And I have a friend who is not fat, just a big, sturdy farm girl type that doesn't even show much when she's DUE. She just looks a bit thick at nine months.

Not the norm, but not impossible, either.

As for "whether it was meanness or stupidity" that caused pregnant chick to say something dumb to you, never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.

[Sarlon]

on the other hand sometimes its just heartless to ask a woman...

one of the members here (won't mention names) whom I'm friends with and lives in my same town, his wife has had complications in the past with pregnancys. So when I learned that shes preggers again I kept my questions neutral, and don't plan on buying any baby things for them until the baby is born and home safely.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I was in the drive-thru, and some lady looks at me and says "Dear, are you expecting?" I replied no, and she said i needed to lay off the *fast food*. People can be such douches.

Now, see, her oh so witty follow up tells me that woman was a See You Next Tuesday who simply wanted to make a nasty comment to someone.

Tragic.

[Magpie]

Babies start to kick exactly during that time, @ 16-20 weeks.

And given that the friend upon whom I was basing this comment kept repeating that every pregnancy is different (she was odd in a few other ways, and people seemed to not believe what she was going through), I really should have known better.