In Defense of Humanity

I spend enough time commuting into downtown Atlanta and removing someone else’s dog crap from my yard to know that people can be inconsiderate jerks. I also pay enough attention to the news to realize that people are doing horrible things to one another every single day. It’s enough to make any future mom worry about the world she will bring her child into.

While this concern will probably never go away altogether, my pregnancy has given me new faith in people. It’s not just my mom who comes over to clean my house on weekends, my neighbors who call if they hear any commotion that might indicate a rush to the hospital, my friends who email to check on me every few days, or my coworkers who reserve a parking space for me and pick up the things I drop around the office. I already know these are good, wonderful people and count myself lucky to have them in my life. No, the real surprise has been the complete strangers who go out of their way to hold doors open for me so I don’t bump my belly, to delight in my lunch orders (“Broccoli for the baby!”), and to stop what they are doing in order to talk to me about my baby.

Everywhere I go, people seem genuinely interested in my unborn baby. It is both strange and refreshing to talk to strangers about something so personal, and it is one of my favorite things about being pregnant.