Wednesday, November 07, 2007

I've named my belly rolls after my children

I heard a story recently that I just can not stop thinking about. When I heard it, I howled with laughter. Then I thought about it a little bit and it made me sad. And then it made me incredibly angry. And then it made me just a teensy weensy bit judgmental. And then it made me laugh again. And it starts all over.
A friend was out of town at a gathering, talking with some other moms, the subject of mothers' groups came up, and of course it seems everyone has something to add to that topic (for instance, my mothers' group when Supergirl was an infant, had 10 girls and one little boy -see?).
Some mothers' groups are professionally organized and are fond of things like guest speakers. Others are more low-key, calling themselves 'baby group', meeting for shared muffins, coffee and toys at rotating houses. Mine was one of the latter type.

So, one of the mothers at this gathering mentioned that she had arranged for a plastic surgeon to come and speak at her mothers' group.
(gulp)
It was at this point in the story that I became incredulous and demanded to know if my friend was making this up. She was not. So then I just laughed. And felt uncomfortable. You know the rest of the cycle.
Ummm....why? I had to ask.
"Well, there was a lot of talk of tummy tucks...boob jobs...the usual, I guess."
The usual?
(gulp)

Okay, I live in an affluent area, I am surrounded by mothers who are able to live far more extravagant lives than my family, but I know I am not alone within the women of this area, of my mothers/babies group, in finding that a little bit....well...shocking? insulting? degrading? unbelievable? inappropriate? demeaning? and yes, laughable.
I can not think of one mom in my group that would ever have
A) invited a plastic surgeon to our group, or
B) tolerated the invitation of one by another mother in the group.

Actually, I know that the area of California in which I live is a bit of a liberal bubble, and where these moms live is...well...different...but seriously? That would have been a sure fire way to get your ass (tightened and lifted ass, of course) kicked right out of baby group. Right after we angrily shook our fists at our babies for cursing us with such saggy breasts and muffin tops!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can not imagine that either. The assumption that there is something wrong with women's bodies after they give birth saddens me.

Sure I'd like to have perky boobs and a flat stomach again, but in the grand scheme of life it does not matter.

Green Kitchen said...

EeeeeYuck! Why don't they just get surrogates or adopt?

Anonymous said...

I I were to name my belly rolls after my children, I need to have two more kids....Wendy