Like Fingernails Down a Chalkboard
I’ve discovered there are some child/baby-related phrases out there that just grate on my nerves like nothing else. I’m sure part of it is because I’m happily childfree and most things pertaining to children/babies/pregnancy either a) annoys b)scares or c) disgusts me, but there are some things that come out of breeders mouths that makes me want to run out of the room screaming. Let’s get started, shall we?
First of all, the phrase, “We’re pregnant.” Um…excuse me? He’s pregnant too? Wow, that really is a feat. I’m sorry, but unless both of you are with child, I don’t understand the whole “we’re pregnant” part. It’s fine to say something along the lines of “we’re expecting a baby” is more acceptable than “we’re pregnant.
My next verbal pet peeve is the phrase, “I’m having his baby” or any of the variations, including but not limited to “I want to have his baby” or “I’m carrying his baby.” Are there some women out there that have such low self esteem and self worth that they don’t even claim to have any part of this child even though they just put their body through turmoil for 9 months and popped out a kid? The guy has the easiest job of it all and he gets all the credit?? WTF?
Peeve #3: “When the babies come…” OMG…I HATE when people say this (for so many reasons). The phrase itself makes it sound like a) having children is inevitable and b) they just show up on your doorstep one day, ready to destroy your life. As my mom always says when she sees breeders with a litter of kids, “This isn’t the Middle Ages. We know what causes that now.”
Any I’ve missed that just weren’t top of mind?
September 2, 2008 at 5:12 am
Or when they pet women’s bellies thinking they’re preggers without asking — happened to me the other day.
I don’t like the “we’re pregnant” thing either. Or “his baby”… stfu. It’s “our baby”
September 2, 2008 at 7:23 am
OMG, I’m laughing at your Mother’s comment regarding the Middle Ages bringing about one of my favorite pet peeve’s; “we don’t know how it happened.” What bull, you know exactly how it happened, planned or not.
September 2, 2008 at 7:27 am
Ooooh I know. Those phrases drive me crazy too!
September 2, 2008 at 10:51 am
All three of those drive me up the wall. A man CANNOT get pregnant! ARGH.
I think you’ve hit all the major verbal pet peeves of mine.
September 3, 2008 at 3:11 am
Hello from a new reader and an instant fan. =)
September 8, 2008 at 10:16 am
Hello… semi-long time reader, first time poster.
I hate all those and the belly-touching thing. Even people I know who have been pregnant hate the belly-touching thing. Because some random stranger thinks your beer belly is crawling with life, they have carte blanche to invade your personal area? Oh, I think not!
The one I personally can’t stand is when people refer to the child as “their blessing”. Ugh, it’s like chewing tinfoil even thinking of it. Let me tell you, a winning lottery ticket is a blessing. A screaming, drooling poop monster is not.
September 10, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I have a pet peeve perpetrated by the media along a similar line and I’m sure its the same in America as it is here in Australia. Whenever a celebrity of any calibre has a child under any circumstances (via IVF, in the car on the way to the hospital, on the laundry floor, after a couple of miscarriages, whatever), the headlines in the women’s mags scream “Celebrity X’s Miracle Baby!”. I swear, so many women have had friggin ‘miracle babies’ in Australia in the last few years its a wonder we don’t have a whole generation of tots capable of walking on water!
October 2, 2008 at 6:31 am
I LOVE your mother’s comment, it sounds like something my mom would say. I’ve actually had someone say to be before, “I’m carrying a MIRACLE!” Like the cure for cancer was embedded in her uterus. I’ve also had a woman that’s a client of mine pull my arms so I could “feel the baby” because it would make me want to “experience the joy”. Yeah. The joy of swollen feet, weight gain, depression and low self esteem.
October 2, 2008 at 7:31 am
My wife was pregnant, I NEVER would have been as pretentious to say “We’re Pregnant” …I did not get the linnea negra, lower back pain, fatigue and food cravings. I might add, that any guy who has ever watched his wife/partner give birth and NOT get a vasectomy later on because they are afraid it will hurt…what a bunch of wusses.
October 5, 2008 at 12:44 pm
My major pet peeve phrase is “you’ll change your mind”. What, you think you know MY mind better than I do? Are you all-knowing or God or something? I think I know my own mind, thank you very much! That one just drives me up the wall. I haven’t gotten that one in a while, thankfully. I’d like to tell people that said that to me 8 years ago – “uh, hello, 8 years and still haven’t changed my mind”.
September 22, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I Some how stumbled upon this page and after reading it discovered that you all need to get a LIFE !!!