(Hey, Scoot, proud of the title?)When I was pregnant with Zachary, I got used to strangers feeling that they could say just about anything to me, regardless of whether it was their business or not. Questions about everything from the baby's sex, due date, and my food cravings, to comments on the same (including frequent unwanted sex predictions) were a daily occurence. However, I expected these probes into my personal business to lessen once Zachary arrived. I was so wrong. People felt they could ask me anything and everything about my pregnant body, and they think it's just as acceptable to make comments on how I raise my child.
The best example of this so far (though I have no doubt that it will continue through Zachary's childhood and probably beyond) has been the frequent comments on whether or not my baby is wearing a hat. The first time this happened, I was walking into Target with Zachary in the bjorn, and a woman exiting walked past me and muttered under her breath, "(gasp!) No hat!" I couldn't believe I had actually heard it, but I had. Another time, I was taking the elevator up to my car after our new parents' support group, when an older gentleman commented on the chilly day. "A stocking cap would be good on a day like today, wouldn't it?" he said looking at Zachary's bare head. I wanted to tell him where he could go shove his stocking cap, but I am not that type of person.
The truth is, I shouldn't care what other people think, but I do. I found myself questioning whether maybe Zachary should be wearing a hat, and now I find myself putting one on him whenever we leave the house, to head off the comments (no pun intended).
But then a couple days ago, someone saw him indoors in his fleece, and the comment was, "Yeah, you're a little warm in that jacket, huh?" Grrr.
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