“Stop fucking touching pregnant people” is all I can think of when I see this.
And I’ll throw in an extra “stop fucking touching babies in public” for good measure. That includes no letting them grab onto your pinky finger! Once you move on, the next place their little fist is going is into their mouth carrying all the germs from your booger picker into their mouth.
Not trying to defend touching people, but the baby is touching anything it can anyway. Their hand is already covered in germs that are going straight into their mouth, whether they grab a stranger’s pinky finger or not.
Not that it excuses it per se, but I think people do that because for them it’s a way to emotionally connect with both the parent and baby at the same time, because they can’t do so otherwise really. It’s often guys doing so I think, bc they never can experience what most of us can.
If so, then a parallel would be to ask if they want to have their navels rudely poked by random weirdos. They probably wouldn’t like that either. Or maybe another parallel is, to try to imagine if they had a kidney dialysis implant on their body and people wanna poke that. The kidney dialysis keeps a person alive, it ‘protects’ them. Likewise, I’d imagine that for those who can get pregnant, people poking their baby bump feels like hurting, a bit of a danger.
And then the question is, would they accept that? Most likely no. And even then, ask before touching (and accepting if no, goes a long way). When a pregnant friend asked me to touch her belly, I asked if she really was ok with that, and she was, but that’s because I asked. And had she said no, that’d have been okay too.
sidenote, fun idea: wearing a spike collar but it covers the entire baby bump. Touch it and you get the ouchie.
“Stop fucking touching pregnant people” is all I can think of when I see this.
And I’ll throw in an extra “stop fucking touching babies in public” for good measure. That includes no letting them grab onto your pinky finger! Once you move on, the next place their little fist is going is into their mouth carrying all the germs from your booger picker into their mouth.
That was my first thought too… The other day we talked to a pregnant lady and my dad started touching her belly. We did not know that lady at all.
Just blanket stop touching people without consent.
also, i see my other comment in response to you, has no votes at all. did the comment get shadowbanned somehow?
there is no such thing as shadowbanning on lemmy, FYI
it is possible for comments to not get federated across instances, though - or for there to be a delay in federation, depending on the instance
Not trying to defend touching people, but the baby is touching anything it can anyway. Their hand is already covered in germs that are going straight into their mouth, whether they grab a stranger’s pinky finger or not.
Newborns in a carrier aren’t touching anything that isn’t placed within their 8-inch reach.
Toddlers are a different monster.
When the kid can walk :D (yay)
When the kid can walk D: (oh no, now everything needs to be kidproofed)
their immune system needs to learn too
it will be stronger for it
im talking out of my ass by the way
Thank you for providing sources for your research!
lol
always happy to help
Not that it excuses it per se, but I think people do that because for them it’s a way to emotionally connect with both the parent and baby at the same time, because they can’t do so otherwise really. It’s often guys doing so I think, bc they never can experience what most of us can.
If so, then a parallel would be to ask if they want to have their navels rudely poked by random weirdos. They probably wouldn’t like that either. Or maybe another parallel is, to try to imagine if they had a kidney dialysis implant on their body and people wanna poke that. The kidney dialysis keeps a person alive, it ‘protects’ them. Likewise, I’d imagine that for those who can get pregnant, people poking their baby bump feels like hurting, a bit of a danger.
And then the question is, would they accept that? Most likely no. And even then, ask before touching (and accepting if no, goes a long way). When a pregnant friend asked me to touch her belly, I asked if she really was ok with that, and she was, but that’s because I asked. And had she said no, that’d have been okay too.
sidenote, fun idea: wearing a spike collar but it covers the entire baby bump. Touch it and you get the ouchie.