Days pregnant: 42 49 U.S., 28 35 Europe
So far we’ve managed to keep the pregnancy a secret from most of my wife’s family, and from all of our friends. However, I love telling people, so I’ve told a few of my close customers; people who have no connection to my friends or family. But my wife too has felt the urge to share it with others. It’s hard keeping track of who I’ve told, and with each day, when I let the secret out to someone else, I keep thinking, “Okay, I’ve got to start logging this stuff.” I think I’ve told 3 customers… and that’s it. Not too bad. And my wife has told 1 sibling, 1 co-worker, and 1 friend. So far so good.
Also, and I feel ashamed for using this secret for commercial purposes – but it’s a great sales tool in my line of work: I happen to “drop the secret” to break the ice with a potential sale, or get in good with an existing customer. I can see myself milking this thing for awhile to come. Yes yes, tell me I’m horrible. But I’m bearing my soul to you here with brutal honesty about how my brain works… and you can’t fault me for that. And it’s not like I’m prostituting my unborn child. I’m just using the dissemination of information to my advantage. Surely there can’t be anything wrong with that. That’s a legitimate sales tactic, right?
So I take back what I said. I don’t feel ashamed. In sales, you need every opportunity to make a connection with someone. Whether I find out that someone loves golf and chatting them up about golf, or whether I use my wife’s pregnancy as a connection… either way I’m just finding a common ground to break the ice.
Good, I’ve managed to talk myself into justifying my actions. Whew. Goodbye guilt!
Anyway… where was I… oh yes. So my wife has 7 other siblings. We’ve told 1 of them, because they announced they were pregnant a couple weeks ago. And my wife enjoys having someone to commiserate with. I told my parents, but I only have one sibling, and we’re still waiting until the end of the first trimester before announcing it. (Right around Thanksgiving time, which is nice timing I think. That should get me out of doing some dishes at the in-laws. SEE! There I go again. Using our situation to my own advantage. But really, can you blame me– I hate doing dishes at Thanksgiving! Oh wait… what if it backfires and they say, “Well, you better get used to doing lots of housework… here you go! A pile of dishes for you.” Hmm. I better think this one through.)
Posted by Manchild 