Over the weekend when I was hiking around Hocking Hills I was given a peek into the world of pregnant women. This sneak peak was brought on by my need to keep my Nikon nice and warm; basically I zipped up my baby into my jacket (Is that child abuse?).
What a scary image for a 22 year old college student- luckily it’s just a Nikon baby! It was actually my mom who brought the look of my “condition” to my attention (“You look pregnant.” AHH!).
I decided to take advantage of my costume and conduct an experiment. I was curious to see if I would notice a change in the way people treated me. Surprisingly I did notice a few advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
1. You are always given the right away. I guess when someone sees a protruding belly they figure if they don’t let you go first across a bridge they are an ass hole.
2. You are always given those “thank you for gracing the world with a baby” smiles. I’m going to go ahead and insert in that these smiles usually came from women.
3. You get to cut in front of everyone in line for the latrines. People are probably thinking, “If I don’t let this woman go first, she’ll probably burst all over me.”
4. You get looks of envy as people realize you’re continuing an active lifestyle while 7 months pregnant. I might have been a fake but hopefully I motivated some people to get healthy.
Disadvantages:
1. You receive really disapproving looks when you slip and almost fall on ice (if you fall you’ll dent the baby’s head).
2. You receive really disapproving looks when you are hiking on a dangerous path (if you fall you’ll dent the baby’s nose in).
3. You receive really disapproving looks when you almost fall down the mountain (if you fall you’ll dent the baby’s legs/arms/elbows).
3. You receive really disapproving looks when you eat yellow snow and wild mushrooms. (Oh, you aren’t supposed to do that regardless if you’re pregnant or not?)
So from this experiment I can now claim two things: while most people find pregnancy something to marvel over, they also see it as needing to live a very cautious lifestyle. I guess one day I’ll have to stop my secret career as a Nascar driver…
