The Elephant in the Room

One of my best friends is pregnant with her #8, my own sweet godson, and is due any day.  All the signs of imminent labor are there, but the most obvious is that the obnoxious comments have begun.

“Just do some jumping jacks.”
“Are you still pregnant?”
“How many babies are in there?”
“You haven’t had that kid yet?”

Night and day her family and friends pester her with phone calls, emails, text messages, and Facebook shout outs.

“Have you had that baby yet?”

She hasn’t, but I think she might wring the neck of the next person to ask her.

Why do people do that?  Do her parents really think it’s possible that she would go into labor, give birth, and get that boy home without saying a word?  He has teenaged siblings on Facebook….I’m pretty sure they would announce it.

So what’s the deal?

I think people don’t know what to say and so they focus on the elephant in the room.  (No, not the pregnant mama, shame on you!)  The only topic of interest seems to be labor and delivery.  The whole world seems to have forgotten that my brilliant and wonderful friend is brilliant…and wonderful.  She’s more than a uterus about to contract.

Here’s my wish for her for the next few days until he arrives:

I hope people ask her about politics, education, religion (because holy cow is she brilliant at discussing religion), special needs children, breaking up fist fights, getting red kool-aid out of the carpet, British literature, Bible history, potty training boys (this is her 6th boy in a row), architectural engineering schools, U.S. weather patterns (a lot more interesting than it sounds), skyscrapers, U.S. history, the Catechism, vocations, getting cereal out of nostrils, boys with ADHD, boys with laziness, brilliant daughters, teenage hormones, teenage love stories, staying married, romance, pregnancy (but not her own!), developmental psychology, patron saints, gross and fine motor skills, lapbooking, singing in the rain, chicken coops, dog training, outside cats, friendship, or dirty jokes.