April Fool's jokes have been around for eons, it's true. From the simple (taping the bottom of someone's optical mouse) to the extreme (replacing shampoo with a hair remover) ...
In my family we've always engaged in some sort of shenanigans. One year my brother convinced me someone drove into the stilts and my mother's house fell down. It's sometimes funny, sometimes not.
The favourite prank this year among my well-educated friends? "OMG I/MY WIFE/MY GIRLFRIEND is in pre-term labor."
It's not funny. I know far too many mothers who have gone in to pre-term labor. Do you know what they brought home? A broken heart. Empty arms. NOTHING.
I get wanting to play a prank, but that's not a prank. That's breaking the hearts of mothers on your list who HAVE lost a preemie or a micro preemie. That's a collective group of people holding their breath and praying so hard, in hopes that the baby(ies) will stay put just a few more days. It's grotesque friendship abuse.
I know, I know. There are a few of you saying "Oh, lighten up. Laugh about it." or "What's the harm in a little prank?"
In my family we've always engaged in some sort of shenanigans. One year my brother convinced me someone drove into the stilts and my mother's house fell down. It's sometimes funny, sometimes not.
The favourite prank this year among my well-educated friends? "OMG I/MY WIFE/MY GIRLFRIEND is in pre-term labor."
It's not funny. I know far too many mothers who have gone in to pre-term labor. Do you know what they brought home? A broken heart. Empty arms. NOTHING.
I get wanting to play a prank, but that's not a prank. That's breaking the hearts of mothers on your list who HAVE lost a preemie or a micro preemie. That's a collective group of people holding their breath and praying so hard, in hopes that the baby(ies) will stay put just a few more days. It's grotesque friendship abuse.
I know, I know. There are a few of you saying "Oh, lighten up. Laugh about it." or "What's the harm in a little prank?"
Here's the thing. IT'S NOT FUNNY. Your 20 week baby? Would not survive pre-term labor. Your 30 weeker? Might survive. Might spend three months in the NICU. Might get NEC (necrotizing enterecolitis) and suffer and then die. Pulmonary hemorrhage, intra-cranial bleeding. Both likely fatal.
All of these scenarios have happened to people I know personally. They're not made-up, not from a book or a medical journal.
So forgive me if I say "Oh my God! I will pray for you!" and then you say "haha, got you! April Fools!" and I get very angry. It's part of being the mother to a dead baby. It's never going to be funny. So when you're thinking of "awesome" ways to "get your friends" ... take other people into consideration.
Because it's not a joke to some of us out in the world.
