To ask what ridiculous things people have said to you in pregnancy/parenthood?

[GreeneryGrass]

Baby #2 is due imminently and I'd blissfully forgotten about all the unsolicited comments you receive when pregnant / as a parent of a baby. What are some things you were told or criticised on?

Here's one of my favourites - when a (childless at the time) friend asked how I planned to feed my first baby and I said formula feed (lots of reasons for this, including mental health - very glad I did this), she told me the old chestnut "breast is best", to which I responded "fed is best!" And she disagreed. Then she went on to have a baby, breastfed then stopped quickly after as it damaged her mental health. Has clearly forgotten our chat as she tells every parent we see she's a "huge advocate for feeding your baby how ever you need, fed is best". Glad she's had growth but wish it hadn't been after belittling me!

I've been told this !

I'm cheating, because this was after a round of IVF where the embryos weren't viable, but it hurt:

'If you are upset about something like this, what would you be like about a six month miscarriage?' (I'd had four miscarriages; he knew that.)

'I don't think you should try again if they're going to be abnormal.'

Just now (I'm 11 weeks pregnant), one of the grandmothers at the school gate heard my friend ask me how my scan went (I had to have a scan at the early pregnancy unit because I was bleeding). 'In my generation we didn't talk about it until three months; haven't you thought that something bad might happen?' No shit, really?

My beloved, planned, much-wanted DD isn't my biological daughter and you would not believe the number of people who said stupid things when her mother and I split up. We have her 50/50 and I was her main carer for most of her childhood. 'So will you still see her at all' and 'It's so nice her mother still lets her visit' were among my favourites.

Me too. Usually framed as 'Have you thought about having another?'

I had no idea just thinking was all it required.

That is just absolutely appalling. I'm so very sorry. I would want to smack that person.

My much loved grandmother died unexpectedly just before my due date. My delightful fucking sister said ‘it’s because you’re having a baby; someone always dies when a baby is born’. She still doesn’t know how close she came to actual physical violence from me.

I was about 7 months pregnant and bumped into an ex teacher who asked me if I knew who the father was????