So, as a follow-up on the last blog post...I am no longer TTC but am almost 5 months pregnant! Yea! And during the 1st trimester I have come to find out that it was not the pain during child birth that God gave Eve as punishment for eating the damn apple....Nope! It is the 1st trimester!!! Holy Hell! I can wait a bit before I subject myself to that again.
As a Gringa living in South America, I knew that I would have some cultural adjustments to make when I got pregnant. I knew that people that I didn't know or knew but weren't intimate friends with would touch my stomach without asking as soon as they found out I was pregnant, thus when I got pregnant and started showing I made a conscious effort to psychologically prepare myself for this....I repeatedly told myself 3 things:
1. This is a happy time and they just want to partake in the happiness. (Which is true...however, this is based on the belief that most people are not perverts)
2. They are transmitting good vibes to me and my baby. (This is questionnable but I could dig it)
3. Pregnancy in Latin American culture is a familial and community event that brings happiness to all. (Yeah, I was reaching but there is some truth in this...I think).
I prepared myself for the belly touching from the time I found out I was pregnant and was so proud of my consciousness that this could be an issue for me and proactively preparing myself accordingly.
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| Me being proud and prepared :-) |
Soooooo......did it work?
Nope!
Despite all the Zen I had going into this, the end result is that I just want to break people's hands or do something that makes them feel equally as uncomfortable. At what point does me being pregnant mean that people get to lay hands on my body without my permission.
A general rule: If you didn't touch my stomach BEFORE I got pregnant, you have no right to touch my stomach WHEN I'm pregnant. (At least without first asking....asking would be good)
You want to feel the baby? Yeah, by touching ME your only feeling ME...sorry folks, baby is pretty well cushioned there.
Anyway, despite all the wicked t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. that I've found to warn people of pending harm to their physical beings and/or psych, I'm still working up the nerve to creatively combat this problem without ending up in jail. So until then, I react appropriately. Allowing those with the happy hands to be happy while making mental notes of how to possible ward off future molestation.
Got any tried and true ways to keep happy hands off your happy belly??
Do share! We'd love to know what you've come up with!!
