Things NOT to Ask a Woman

Having married in our late twenties we didn't immediately try to have children. Even though we were older than most of our friends when they married, we were not in a hurry to start a family. It wasn't until I was about to turn 34 that our first child came along. Three years later came our second and along about 46 number three arrived.

Any way you look at it, 46 is not the same as 26 even though at the time, I could escape being identified as 46.

As many a new Mom experiences those first months with their baby, sleep is a commodity and fatigue is a constant companion. I was no different. Our third did not sleep through the night completely until he was 8 months old so by that time I was very ready to have that first full night in snoozeland.

However, it was somewhere within the first few months after his birth that a dreadful event occurred. I was looking rather haggard that morning as I put him in his carrier and off to the store I went. This was not a store I usually shopped because even though they carried groceries and hardware the smell of stacked fertilizer was more than I could bear. For some reason, this grocer was located in the area where I was running my errands so I thought a quick pop in for whatever it was would lighten my day.

A perky checker was cheerfully ringing up the customer in front of me. Then it was my turn. Her first words out of the box were, "Oh, you taking care of your grand baby today?" To which I responded curtly, "No, this is my son!" End of conversation.

The urge to expose my stretch marks to this checker were put on "check" (pun intended). I payed for my few items and huffed out of the store more tired than when I had arrived. That okie dokie feeling that morning had burned off with the smoke coming out of my head!

Eventually I blew it off, but here is one thing you do NOT ask or say to a woman. "Is that your grandchild?" In this day and time it may be or it may NOT be their grandchild.