The conversation with your colleague was so weird and wrong-headed that you eventually did what you always do and recounted it to others later using her as the punchline.
“When are you due?” she’d asked, after cornering you and your bump in the tearoom.
You told her.
“And when is your birthday?”
Confused, you responded on autopilot.
At this, she grabbed her throat theatrically.
“What’s wrong?” you asked, against your better judgment.
“Well,” she gasped. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but you and your baby will be in astrological hell. Totally incompatible. Those star signs don’t align. Mine was the same as yours, and my horrible ex-husband was the same as your baby and look where that ended up.”
For every bully with a megaphone, there are 10 angels prepared to sit quietly with your child and whisper to them about what it is to be good.Credit: iStock
More than a decade on, you’re still capable of hamming the story up for laughs. What kind of idiot says that to an expectant mother anyway? But occasionally, some traitorous part of your brain whispers that maybe she was right. It’s not that you don’t love them fiercely, this cherished child of yours. You always have, and they love you. But wrapping your brain around the things that move them, helping them navigate relationships with people who don’t see their particular magic… those are things that come less naturally.
Sticks and stones may break my kid’s bones, but it’s the words that hurt most
5
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11.03.2024
The conversation with your colleague was so weird and wrong-headed that you eventually did what you always do and recounted it to others later using her as the punchline.
“When are you due?” she’d asked, after cornering you and your bump in the tearoom.
You told her.
“And when is your birthday?”
Confused, you responded on........
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