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Rant: cancer is not just like pregnancy 😡

Ta • Mon, Oct 10

Apologies but am almost 20w with our first baby (after 2 years of struggling and losses) and something my mom said at Thanksgiving dinner last night (Canadian) irritated me so much! We were all doing the post-dinner coma thing in the living room and my dad & I were chatting about some randomness. I apologized for not having any pumpkin pie as I haven't been able to stand either the taste or smell of cinnamon lately and he said it was just pregnancy hormones. Suddenly, my mom pipes up from across the room that pregnancy is a lot like cancer. Everyone gets quiet and I don't think I heard her properly so I politely asked,"Sorry, pregnancy is just like what?" And she goes,"Cancer, bc your taste buds get all messed up too." I didn't say anything as she is a breast cancer survivor (in remission 20+ years 😊) and everyone just ignored her but omg that irritated me.

I wasn't annoyed that she was comparing pregnancy to cancer but it is more my mom's lifelong habit of saying anything, even if completely unrelated/inappropriate to a conversation she's not a part of, just so she can put in a word. I know that she's just trying to be a part of the conversation but wtf?! She wasn't drunk either.

A bit of background: my mom decided not to have kids (babies' snot/drool/diapers are disgusting, young children are noisy and "too much") so has never been pregnant. My brother and I were adopted when we were older and when my parents were older as well. I care about my mom as she means well but she has some tendencies/interpersonal habits (as a result of how she viewed herself during her own childhood) that would have benefited from therapy years ago! Thankfully, my dad loves childern and is already talking about stuff he wants to get to keep at their place for his first grandchild (I'm not going to let him spend any money but it's sweet).

Ok, rant over. I just needed to vent, sorry.

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