Belly Touching

At work yesterday, my co-worker Rob informed me that I've reached the stage in my pregnancy where he's tempted to touch my belly.  He also said that he never would... I guess working around all women gives you temptations that you have to resist all the time. :)

This isn't my belly...but it's a cute belly.  So you get to see it.

It got me thinking about belly touching and the various types of people out there.  I'm seeing some distinct categories.

• Non-acknowledgers-- This group, usually comprised men, see I'm preggo but don't mention or acknowledge.  I could probably be giving birth in front of them and they would still try to talk to me about their latest common assessment.  
• Talkers, but no move to touch--This group likes to talk about my belly all the time (they usually call me cute, even if I look like arse), but keep their hands firmly in one place.
• Hover-ers--This group cracks me up, probably because I often fall into it.  Members make a move to touch me, stop short, and wave their hands around.  It's kind of like an aura-massage.  My internal conversation usually went something like this, "It's a belly and it's CUTE.  I want to touch it, but that's probably inappropriate...so this as close as I can get."
• Grabbers--Full on grabbers.  1 hand, 2 hands, they want a chunk of some baby belly.  I don't really mind this, as long as I know the person.  Well.  Like I have their phone number or a something in common with them.  I think the requirement to ask if you can touch decreases significantly based on your level of closeness to me and if you've touched me before.  If we've hugged, you can touch.  No problem.  If I don't know your name, it would freak me out.
• "Others"--This group goes rouge.  They make their own rules.  For instance, a lady I work with (as in she works in one of my buildings.  We don't work "together" but see each other when I'm stealing chocolate from someone else's office) came up to me and said, "Look at the belly!  I wanna touch!"  The then proceeded to stick her index finger out and make the "airplane" motion (like she was feeding a baby) and poke me with one finger.   Weird.  She's weird, so I wasn't surprised.  Lesson here: don't do weird things when touching my belly or I will tell everyone I see.

I think I've been lucky so far.  No strangers have attempted to touch me yet.  I really don't want strangers to touch me, pregnant or not, so I'm grateful.  The only male who has touched my belly is David...maybe this is because the men I work with are few and far between AND have been drilled about sexual harassment.  Or maybe men just don't care.