Blast From the past: June 25th, 2010

Tummy touching

As my wife and I continue on our journey to parenthood, we have heard from many people, movies, magical talking cats who wear top hats, and other sources that pregnant women are victim to a strange phenomenon. It seems that no matter where a pregnant woman is, someone wants to touch her belly. Of course, since we are so early into the pregnancy, we have not come across this situation, but the whole idea is kind of odd to me.

As human beings, we have been going through the human experience for ages, we all know how babies are made(The stork comes in the middle of the night and plants a seed in the woman's belly button and a baby grows inside her. You all know that!)and we all know what pregnant women look like. This has been a very common occurance that has been going on since the dawn of man, so why do random people act like the monkey at the beggining of Space: 2001 everytime they see a pregnant woman walk into the room? It's like some mysterious monolith appearing and radiating a magical beam of curiosity. What do random people think they will gain once they have touched a pregnant woman's belly? Wisdom? Insight to the meaning of life? No, they just create a weird situation.
Before you ask, no I am not talking about family of the pregnant woman. I think it is perfectly normal for the father, grandmother, cousin, aunt, uncle of the baby to want to touch the tummy. Afterall, it is their little relative inside there! For me it is amazing to know that my future child is living in my wife's stomach not too far faway rom the Bacon Avocado sandwhich she had just eaten. But why do strangers think it's okay to gawk at and even touch the tummy of a pregnant woman they don't even know?

Sure, I don't know if this will really happen to Mercy yet, I have no idea what adventures this pregnancy will bring. My only real source of information comes from television, movies, old cartoons, stories old people have told me and things I read on weird websites. However, I think if some random person just springs out of the bushes and rubs my wife's belly for goodluck or something, I may punch them in the eye.