No One Around Me Gave Up Booze When I Was Pregnant Because They Needed It To Deal With Me
Pregnant Pause is an Australian organization that encourages partners, friends and husbands to pledge to give up drinking for a period of time and have friends pledge to support them. It’s kind of like getting pledges for people to support you on a walk-a-thon. Only, this is a sober-a-thon. All of the money raised goes to The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE). It’s a pretty fantastic idea.
I don’t know what kind of pregnant ladies you all were, but I was a pain in the ass. In retrospect, I have no problem admitting it. I’m pretty confident I would’ve had zero luck trying to get my close friends, family and baby-daddy to give up anything to numb the reality of dealing with me on the daily. Look, I’m only human. Pregnancy hormones are no joke.
There was the time I was desperately craving a bagel with butter. This may seem like a ho-hum meal, but if you live in Brooklyn it’s actually pretty exquisite. New York has the best bagels in the world and Brooklyn in particular is untouched by any health-conscious desire to be sparing with the butter. They are delicious. My husband rushed out to retrieve one. He came home with a Lender’s bagel that had margarine on it. A mother-eff-ing Lender’s bagel. In New York. With margarine. I wept, with tears and everything. I’m pretty sure he had a few beers at lunch that day.
Then there was the time my sister designed my baby shower cards in Comic Sans. I actually thought, My baby deserves a better font than this! More tears. Who was this crazy person? It was me. Pregnant me.
Pregnancy is kind of a bummer on the party-time front. I don’t see why you should bring your loved ones down with you – especially if they are all dealing with people like my pregnant self. Maybe Australians are nicer and more empathetic, because I could never have gotten anyone in my circle to agree to this. Luckily, the organization also allows you to bypass the whole sober-a-thon and just donate.
(photo: Flickr/CreativeCommons/epiclectic)