...on with the daily ranting. I was commenting in Womb 4 improvement today on the proclivity, if that's the correct term, of pregnancy bumps in my workplace. More swollen pregnancy bellies than you could shake a pee stick at. That's probably because I work in a manufacturing plant that employs 500 people, and there is a large female workforce. So there's no getting away from it, there's a lot of baby making going on. Last month somebody told me that there were 15 women due to go out on maternity leave in the next 3 months. So as you can imagine, you can't bloody move for bumps all over the gaff.
What really gets to me though is that the women in my department have three main obsessions. 1) Their own kids, 2) Hurling (for my non Irish readers this is a gaelic game played with a stick and ball, and has nothing to do with projectile vomiting) and last but not least 3) Other people's pregnancies and babies. So I can pretty much guarantee that at least 3 or 4 times per week the breakfast or lunchtime conversation will go like this:
*Co-worker gazes at pregnant woman in canteen queue*
Colleague one - "Jaysus, Geraldine has some bump on her, how far is she gone?"
Colleague two - "six months, isn't she grand and big. When's Siobhan going out on maternity leave?"
Colleague three - "Friday. Did you hear Martina had a baby boy yesterday?"
Colleague one - "Really? What are they calling him?"
Blah, blah, blah. Every second bloody day!!! And what's more they all know about my losses, and these conversations are taking place among a group of 8 or so people. Can we please talk about something else, please?!! I'll buy the hurling for dummies book, anything but other people's pregnancies!!
The other thing is the company shop. The company I work for is a manufacturer of consumer/household/beauty care/baby care/everything under the sun really - well maybe not everything. One of the perks of this is that we have a company shop, which gives us the opportunity to buy goods made at other plants for half nothing. So one of the products we occasionally get in is nappies. In my more optimistic days, I even bought some for my own unborn babies (note to oneself, check if they have an expiry date, they're not going to be adorning any little baby's arse in this house soon). These days I'm stocking up for one of my in-laws who is expecting this Autumn. But the looks you get in the shop if you are seen carrying a bale of nappies up to the counter. "Have you news?" Nudge nudge, wink wink. No I haven't, but I'm having fertility treatment and I'll keep you updated when I'm next due to pee on a stick. Now fuck off and leave me alone!!!!
The best one of all to top it off though was the week before last, when I was bang in the middle of my second episode of Clomid induced lunacy. I walked into the canteen, and there in front of me was a rep from a baby food company, with a stand set up in the canteen to give free samples of formula, baby food and sippy cups to all the new mums and mums to be. So everyone sat there and watched everyone going up to the table, and then when I got back to my desk there was another 20 minute conversation about how this place is turning into a baby factory. Sweet Jesus, can they not see that there might be one or two infertiles in the place? Ahhhhhhh!!!
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6 comments:
Ahhhhhhh!!! indeed. Also arse feckitty grrr. I am VERY lucky that my co-workers are singleton and or menopausal, and there is very very little of the baby-talk. (On the other hand, we're just around the corner from a major pregnancy/ maternity hospital , so the streets are infested. Heigh ho). I admire you very much for not throwing a wobbly. Because, really, the face-rubbing. Argh.
Yes, it's the pits alright. I was sitting beside someone from another department the other day (she wouldn't have known about my losses, but knows I am married and childless) and the conversation was about someone who had been married a number of years before they had kids, and then had a few in a short number of years. This woman said "Yeah, it's funny that. Some people wait ages to have kids and then they have one after another after another". It was on the tip of my tongue to say "Did it ever occur to you that they might not be waiting, they might be trying, or having fertility treatment?". Honestly, some people just live on a different planet.
Have you taken the provera yet? Hope all is going well with you.
Sounds like hell! I really appreciate the opportunity to switch off from my infertility woes at work ocassionally one of the younger, more clueless lasses will ask me when I'm going to have children but I normally just laugh it off with an inane answer and not answering . But to be bombarded everyday must be tough.
This is a woman thing (well, duh, I hear you say)
But the bellies don't bother me, but kids with dads does.
Especially now, in the summer, nice weather, fun and games, blah blah blah.
Pass the bottle...
@womb for improvement - yes I am trying to develop a thicker skin for the workplace alright. It's not easy though. Every time I have miscarried I have ended up sitting a desk or two away from someone due a baby within a week or less of me. Not easy.
@Xbox - I can understand that. Lately seeing my husband interact with our nieces and nephews or friends' kids really makes me sad. I really want to make him a Daddy. I know he'd be a brilliant one. Pass the bottle this way when you're done!
Hey ho - would you mind if I used a few lines from this on a post?
I'm rounding up a few bits from blogs.
Can I call you mean names also, all in the name of sport of course?
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