Bump Babies

The Hollywood lastest fad is  baby bump news. Everyone loves babies. They're cute and cuddly and happy occasions to celebrate, but I am truly not interested in the fact that actress A is going to have a baby months later to actor B. It's all very nice that they are starting a family, but that isn't movie news that I find interesting or news worthy. I would much rather know what movies the stars are making and when they will appear. The paparazzi seems infested with this baby bump sort of silliness: what will the names be, is it going to be a son or daughter, how many other children does the couple have in this marriage or that? We love their movie work but these pregnant people are not people we know personally, and what their private lives are, should not be of our concern. We all know this glorious event will end up with an actor's child being toted around exposed to media glare constantly and is likely to be tended, of necessity due to the busy movie work of their parents, by nannies and sadly but eventually through divorce, become part of a second or third or more,  extended family. Do the math. Previously, hot news was who was dating who, how bare the dress was or who married or divorced whom. Now it's baby news: pictures of the baby bump at the premiers or award ceremonies that show off curvatures in designer garb, photos that are spread all over cyberspace and general petty gossip. Who really cares? The entertainment media wants us to care but actually, do we? We are always happy to see happy people, but it seems to me that pregnancy is something a little private and precious and meant mostly for an immediate family, not news that should be flung about for commercial  purposes. What I do like to see is news and views that pregnant women are no longer hidden away under tent clothing and behind closed doors as  once they were. The baby bump is not shocking to see now as it would have been in times not that far back. No longer is a woman worried about going to work "showing". In my day, you weren't permitted to work beyond six months and even then in my profession, you had to have board permission to continue working up to six months. Goodness! Someone might see an enlarged waistline and know that you, a married woman, were pregnant! All of your friends and relatives were delighted that you were having a baby; but at work, oh no! It might embarrass your fellow workers or worse still, your clients or customers.  Children were involved in my work, and while most of them had mothers who were at times pregnant, it was supposed to remain a family-only secret, not something to be witnessed in public. Eyes might roll or heads turn or tongues cluck, We are much enlightened today, fortunately. Why it had been something shunned in public previously, is mysterious since all of us arrived here from a mother who had a baby bump and had to appear at sometime or other in public. With a new year on the cusp, its symbol, a baby, is a truly welcome one, and may it be a "good" baby in 2017.