When men see a baby bump ...

I watched men and women in a shopping mall. Doing that can be great fun and today I found out that men behave differently towards women who are pregnant. During the last about seven days I have noticed that repeatedly. I have written about hubby who would not allow me to carry things. I don't mean heavy bags, just something like an ordinary shopping bag. He virtually grabs those things away from me.

And today I had a chance to see more, because a good friend and I were  shopping in the mall. My jacket was open, under it a blouse that let appear my little baby bump. I love that, because now it starts looking like I am pregnant, not just overstuffed. And out of nowhere, there was an attentive man who held a door open for us. Actually that was just a nice thing to do, so if it is like good manners, I can enjoy that. What I don't want is to feel as if I am disabled. I guess that's why I keep thinking back to these moments when hubby is around and won't let me carry anything at all. But I also know that hubby does it because he cares and this is lovely and I enjoy it.

Men also have this quick covert glance at my bump, then they look quickly back into my eyes or elsewhere. So, my bump is noticed, which I like. I am really proud and happy that it is there. But men behave differently now. One year ago some would have looked at my breasts and bum first of all. Uhm, some conversations actually have been more between my breasts and their eyes. Well, I am sure you know exactly what I mean. Especially in summer these things happened.

This is not really stereotyping, just experiences that I have made and I am not talking about all men, here either.

Still, compared to women, the men I looked at were pretty shy about looking at pregnant women they don't know personally. I took my time in the mall and looked around. There were three other pregnant women around and you could really observe that men tried not to be too obvious about it. I don't know if they were afraid they'd be accused of being the father or if it was something else. Maybe this is something German? In summer I'll try to find out what British men behave like when we go home to visit hubby's parents. But so far the only English example I can refer to, is hubby. And hubby loves my bump. 

One woman we saw, was there with a female friend and she watched a pregnant woman who had a big bump, like the last week with twins. The two friends obviously talked about the pregnant woman's bump. I mean, it was really a very visible belly, like in 'huge', but then again maybe it was just because the woman herself was rather small. I think she really looked cute, though I know that I am somehow overly positive about anything baby-related. But the other two looked as if they commented negatively. Not nice. That's probably why they did not want anybody to notice that they had watched her. Apart from those two, most women we saw were not shy about looking at the bellies of pregnant women.

But the men only looked for a short, hidden moment at pregnant women's bumps as if that was an embarrassing thing to do. Whereas other women took a long look in general and they did not even stop when they were seen doing so. I mean, if there is another pregnant woman in sight, I also look at her belly and try to guess the week she might be in. Maybe I'm currently developing a fetish for bellies. That might also explain why many men have a big belly, like sixth month: they do it for their wives?