Different Generations

For those of you who don't know, I work as an Occupational Therapist. I work at an inpatient rehabilitation hospital for people who have had surgery, car wrecks, strokes, things like that. The majority of the people I work with would be considered in the geriatric population. I just love this group of people because I feel that I learn so much from them. They pass on wisdom to me that I wouldn't get from the peer groups I normally surround myself with. Since I've gotten more and more noticeably pregnant, I've gotten a lot more snippets of advice. Some are comical, some are truly helpful, but none have been rude..until yesterday.

Let me preface this by saying that this past week has been National Rehabilitation Week. All employees were given t-shirts to wear on Friday in celebration of this week. I normally do not wear t-shirts anywhere but around the house and to the grocery store, but I wore one to work yesterday. I got a size medium, since the small was borderline showing my stomach sticking out the bottom. Therefore, this t-shirt allowed ample room for my stomach, but was slouchy and hanging off my shoulders, etc, but I figured it was better than showing my pregnant belly.

So this is me in my big t-shirt that I wore to work yesterday.

Now, on to the rude comment. I worked with a patient who was in her early-to-mid 70s and we got along great. She never mentioned anything about me being pregnant and if patients don't bring it up, neither do I. Well, after our session, along came another therapist who asked this dear sweet lady how things went with Lindsey. The patient proceeded to say, "She was fine to work with, but she is very inappropriately dressed. She shouldn't be allowed to wear such tight clothing with her pregnant belly showing like that. When I was pregnant, women wore tents so no one could see our stomachs."

At first I took offense to this. I don't know how I'm supposed to hide an 8 month pregnant stomach other than locking myself behind doors for the remainder of my pregnancy. But after some time has passed, I can only look at this situation and laugh. We are from different generations, and while I wish that we would adopt some of the values of previous generations, I am glad that women are no longer hidden away behind doors or "tents" while they are growing the miracle of life.