Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Note to Retail Employees

In this edition of "things not to say to women who have recently had babies:"

Yesterday I was in a store that sells baby clothes. The woman at the register asked: "Are these for your baby?" with one of those big, overly sweet smiles.

"Yes, they are." Henry was in the stroller, about ten feet away, being wheeled around by a friend who is a few years younger than my mom. We had walked in together a couple of minutes earlier.

She looked at my stomach; no, she studied my stomach. "So...are you pregnant? Or...."

"No," I said, "My baby is six weeks old."

"Oh!!" she exclaimed. Profuse compliments on each of my purchases followed. "Wow, these shirts are sooooooooo cute. You really picked out fabulous stuff!"

I wonder if, when you work in a childrens' store, it might be better just to assume that the customers are not pregnant. I really did feel skinny, right up until that moment.

5 comments:

dt said...

oh boy oh boy :)

Anonymous said...

Wow! Especially coming from an employee at a kid's store. I guess if you thought all the comments about your appearance would end once you stopped being pregnant then YOU THOUGHT WRONG! =)

Karina said...

lovely. if it makes you feel any better, someone asked me that when Finn was 8 MONTHS old. i felt violent.
love seeing the updates on henry!! looks like everything is blissful :)

Log home living said...

Kelly, your blog is wonderful! Thanks for sharing here--love your very "real" thoughts on mommy-hood~

GIEJ Long said...

Your story made me smile, as it brought to my memory something similar that happened to me, and that question came also from an employee of a kid's store... "When are you due?"... and Jonathan was a week old.