The other day, I heard myself say, “Are you so excited?!” to a friend that’s 8 months pregnant. Why are the questions we are asking pregnant women so bad? I HATED getting that question because the answer was always no. Here are a bunch of better questions we can ask each other.
Sarah Lacy is building an online platform where women can discuss the most important issues they face in their personal and professional lives. So how did she create a supportive online space for women to connect with each other?
Our culture is shockingly poor at making any space for the experience, or even the possibility, of loss and grief. It’s no wonder that we protect the secret of pregnancy (and ourselves) until we feel we’ll receive a warmer, safer reception. We may have heard these messages enough over the years through pervasive cultural norms and experiences that we are telling ourselves the same things, to make it easier. To make it less painful. But what if this cultural norm does not actually serve us well? What if it isolates us when what we really need is connection and silences us when we need a voice?
We aren’t born to live alone, and we’re not meant to parent alone, either. In both parenting and work, we need diverse teams and communities, especially at the beginning of the adventure.