Telling my dad

I’ve gotten a little more comfortable with the idea of people knowing I’m pregnant, so I decided to start out by telling my dad.

My dad is very unpredictable on how he will react to things, depending on his mood and alcohol content.

Thankfully he called me this evening so at least I knew he was in a mood to talk.

After getting past the pleasantries and him saying something about how he looked old in a picture I sent him, I saw my opening.

“Oh, you’re not that old. Although I do have some news that may make you feel a little older.”

“Ok, what’s that?”

“I’m about 10 weeks pregnant.”

*Pause*

“Oh!”

*Pause*

“With Kier?” (stand-in name for my husband)

No with a space alien I met at a local dive bar. Yes, with my husband!

I responded with an emphatic yes, to which he replied jokingly defensive with something about “oh ok, well I’m not one to judge how you decide to do things, just wanted to make sure…”

As the conversation went on he got more and more excited, and kept asking how I was feeling (he’d obviously had a bit to drink by this point), and hoping for an easy pregnancy and making sure I could still travel to the family reunion this summer.

At first I found the response somehwat amusing, but I’m getting more pissed the more I think about it. Why would he question whether or not I’d be loyal to my husband? He also said something about how he’s worried Rafe won’t be an attentive father, which is less surprising and less offensive to me since he can’t say nice about anybody’s parenting, including my mom’s, but combined those two comments really piss me off that he’s insulting the father of his future grandchild.

I wish in some way I could have more perspective, and it probably doesn’t help that I’m tired and fighting a cold, but just seriously? That’s your first response! Like I said, my dad has always had weird reactions to news about me, very unpredictable and amusing from the outside, but not as funny when it’s your own father.

But, that said, he’s probably the worst reaction I’ll get the entire time, and he’s overall very happy with the news, so I’m glad that that’s over with and I can look forward to telling others without fear of bizarre initial reactions.

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