belly touching

whenever i say that strangers or strange men have touched my stomach people seemed surprised. so here are some of the situations where this has happened to me.

1.) lots of parents at school have touched my stomach. some of them i know. some of them i have met once or twice and a bunch of them i have only seen but never spoken to. it doesn't really bother me because they aren't really complete strangers, being that i know they have kids at the school, and i often know their children.

2.) meeting people for the first time. i have met some people in the last few months for the first time ever and they have touched my stomach. some of these people (i feel) only talked to me because they could see that i was pregnant.

3.) i have been to some wedding and baby showers lately for friends and have seen people there that i haven't seen in a long time and i really never talked to much before the day of the shower. i approached them to say hi or they approached me and the hand quickly goes to the belly. again, these are not complete strangers, but i don't really know them. i know their name, or i ask someone near me to remind me of their name because that is how little i know them.

4.) strange men. this happened to me at the grocery store. i was in line for the teller and an elderly man was behind me. i asked if he could please move his cart a bit so i could put my basket on the stack of baskets. he did. then he said "should you have been carrying the heavy basket?" i said "oh, it wasn't too heavy". while i was answering him he walked over to me and put his hand on my stomach and said "you need to take care of that little baby". "yes. of course, thank you" i said. it was awkward. at least he was an older man and not some guy in his 40s or something. but still.....very weird.

5.) i am one who likes to smile at babies or toddlers or say hi to them if they are staring at me. usually the moms look over at me and say to their child "say hi" or something along those lines and we exchange smiles and that is it. since i have been noticeably pregnant i now get the moms asking me how far along i am, when my due date is, whether or not i know if it is a boy or a girl. i in turn ask how old their child is and if they have other children. but sometimes, not always, these moms also feel the need to touch my stomach. these situations aren't as odd to me. they have a baby with them, they are chatting with me about babies or about when they were pregnant and it seems more appropriate in the moment.

i am not one who touches other people's bellies. maybe that will change once i have had my baby but for now i don't do it. there has been 1 time where i did and as i was reaching out i was screaming to myself DON'T DO IT!!!! but it was too late. my arm was out there and it was happening. crap. i didn't know this girl very well. she is a super sweet girl, but i bet she was uncomfortable. i think about that situation sometimes and think that maybe these "strangers" who touch me feel the same way after they have done it. here's hopin.