To wonder if it's a man thing that the men haven't noticed?

[Yambabe]

As a kind of hobby, I do a bit of photojournalism for a website covering something I enjoy doing.

I'm at an event this weekend.

The Press Officer for the event (who we all only really see at the event every year) has just sent a group message out via Facebook to several fellow scribblers asking if we want her to schedule interviews with and of the event participants. Apart from me they're all blokes.

Her message concluded "btw I'll be 39 weeks so will have someone else doing the running about this year!"

So far about 15 people have replied, and I'm the only one who has said congrats. It seems to have sailed right over everybody's heads!

Is this a man "thing" or am I being over-sensitive ?

Depends on the person. In general though you're more likely to get a response of congratulations from women.

If they don't have their own kids they may not know what 39 wks means. 🤔😆

'39 weeks' is jargon, that men wouldn't respond to unless they were absolutely certain they understood it right. Getting it wrong would be potentially insulting.

Also, those who do understand it may not care.

If she’d said eight and a half months, it would have been obvious!

One of my customers put in his email signature that he would be on paternity leave for a couple of weeks so I messaged him to say congratulations.

Apparently I was the only person who mentioned it!!

I think women are more in tune with this sort of thing, but equally people might just not care! X

I wouldnt have a clue what I am 39 weeks meant unless it was in the same sentence as pregnant. Also find congratulations on getting pregnant a bit odd.

Bloke here (I apologise for the crimes of my people. No, I don't expect you all to listen to me just because I'm male. Yes, I know it's called MUMSnet :-). I think it is a bloke thing.

In general I think the differences between sexes are exaggerated, but it is true that most of us just don't do the social nicety stuff as much as you lot. We tend to see conversation (especially when it isn't face to face) as just a means of imparting info. It often just doesn't occur to us to say things like congratulations because- well why would that matter? Personally, I know why it matters now, but it took a lot of explaining.

I think most blokes would twig what 39 weeks meant after a short think, and those who didn't would as likely ask as ignore.

Woman here.

Never had kids.

If someone said '39 weeks' I'd think 'huh?'

If she has said '39 weeks pregnant' then yes I'd think 'oh pregnant'.

I never congratulate anyone until the baby is out to be honest.

Ive not had kids and I’m not sure I would congratulate either, I guess it would depend on how well I knew her. I’m trying to work out why I wouldn’t congratulate, and I’m really not sure what the answer is, I think maybe it just wouldn’t occur to me, or I might even worry that it would be inappropriate in some weird way!

I understand 39 weeks is a reference to being pregnant but I don't understand the need to say congrats. People do it on here.

Someone will post 'pregnant and buying a pram, what do you recommend' and all the posts will start with 'congratulations on your pregnancy', which is weird and unnecessary especially if you don't know that the pregnancy was planned. It could have been a life changing disaster for all you know.

I probably wouldn’t congratulate her as I wouldn’t be sure what she meant and wouldnt want to assume. Oh and I’m a woman - albeit a slightly awkward one when it comes to this sort of thing!

I do always congratulate someone when they tell me they’re pregnant in person, in an unambiguous way. I am sure most men would too.

Woman here. Might just be me but until we started TTC I was completely oblivious to anything pregnancy/baby related. I doubt I would have known what '39 weeks' meant back then.

I wouldn't have congratulated her. It's a professional setting, you should keep things professional and about the work. The organiser put in the email that she was 39 weeks because it changed how the event was being managed.

I think it's a 'people who have children' thing. They'd know what it meant and understand the sense of anticipation.

Pre-dc, I'd have been likely to say congrats once born, or maybe 'hope all goes well' in response to that message, not 'congrats' at this stage.

Men don't really notice and when they do they don't know what to say. I work in an all female environment except for one man, he didn't notice until I was about 21 weeks and he asked someone else instead of me in case I was just getting fat. Then asked if it was planned 😂😂 luckily I was offended and realised he just didn't know what else to say.

I also tend to err on the side of caution and not congratulate until baby is safe and actually delivered into the world. But in this instance what else could 39weeks sensibly refer to .

That said, perhaps they just didn't congratulate as the announcement was not the focal point of the message iyswim...