The things people believe…

In muddling my way through this adventure known as “pregnancy,” I have been skimming message boards on sites like babycenter.com, which I am finding more and more is a bad idea. It is shocking how uneducated some people seem to be, both in what they say and how they say it. I’m talking about things like texting shorthand being used as a regular method of conversation; I’m sorry but if u r not on ur phone n u r uzin shrthnd instd of typin wurdz out n propr englsh, it makes u look DUM.

That, however, is another rant entirely.

Wait, one more thing… why do so many people spell it “pregnate”? Really! Pregnate? How is babby formed? How girl get pragnent?

The questions that people seem to regularly ask on these forums seriously makes me wonder about the intelligence level of the average person. I mean, if somebody told you, “If you are pregnant, you have to get rid of your cats”… wouldn’t you RESEARCH that before just doing it? Like, maybe try to find some scientific evidence that cats have to be “gotten rid of” (I shudder to think what that implies for a lot of people)?

Maybe people think that asking a public forum questions like that qualifies as “research.”

[By the way, you DO NOT NEED TO GET RID OF CATS or any other pets while you are pregnant. The fear likely stems from an infection that you can get called “toxoplasmosis,” which humans can pick up if they come in contact with animal feces. Most people who are longtime cat owners likely have already had the disease and are immune, even if they don’t realize it. The safe thing to do is either have someone else change cat litter when you are pregnant, or wear rubber gloves and a face mask while doing it yourself. I repeat, DO NOT get rid of your cats.]

There are a lot of very common myths relating to the gender of the baby, such as girls’ heartbeats being faster, boys carrying lower, and no morning sickness with boys. People also question the validity of the ring-on-a-string test for predicting gender… and guess what folks, it is actually right 50% of the time!! Random chance is also 50%. Coincidence?!

Anyway, reading through these forums and seeing the questions that people actually ASK… that they don’t already know through common sense or a quick read through a pregnancy book or a quick Google search… It shocks me. A sampling:

• I love to eat hot sauce. I eat it every day. I love it. Will it hurt the baby?
• Lifting your arms above your head will put a knot in the cord. 
• Having sex while pregnant will hurt the baby; or, the baby KNOWS you’re having sex so you shouldn’t do it.
• How do i break my own water, in order to induce labor? i would like to know the best way to induce labor on my own.
• You should have someone look at you from behind. If you can’t tell you’re pregnant from the back, it will be a girl.
• It IS absolutely true that if you’re having a boy you will crave proteins. 
• is it true that a girl baby will steal ur beauty and make ur hair dry?
• Cat fur in the household will make the baby be born blind.
• It’s a boy if your pillow faces north when you sleep.
• It’s a girl if you refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread
• It’s a girl if you add your age at the time of conception and the number for the month you conceived and the sum is an odd number.

A saleswoman in a store where we were looking at strollers and carseats commented to me that Doc was tall, and because the man’s genes are always stronger, our baby would also be tall.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure genetics doesn’t work that way, lady! Not to mention I am also five feet eleven inches, which ain’t exactly short.

This woman also said that because our baby would be tall, we’d be lucky to get 3 months’ use out of an infant carseat before he outgrew it, so we should probably just get a regular convertible one instead. I couldn’t help thinking, lady, you’re in the business of selling us as much baby crap as you possibly can; why are you trying to talk us OUT of a sale? And I’ll worry about my baby’s safety myself, thank you very much.

I guess this is just the beginning of the inevitable barrage of unwanted parenting advice….