Here are just ten of the questions I was asked by people I had never met before.

I was incredibly anxious about my first outing out of the house with my newborn. We started with a walk at the local park and moved on to nipping to the supermarket around the corner. When my baby was a month old I felt ready to pop in to town on my own with him.
We hopped on a bus and headed to Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre. There were shops, plenty of coffee outlets and a feeding/changing room on site. It was the perfect venue for our first big outing.
 
It was a total success in the sense that there were no big dramas. We ate, we drank and he fed beautifully in the feeding room. We made it home in one piece and it didn’t even rain that day so I didn’t have to awkwardly fumble for the pram’s rain cover.
 
One thing that shocked me though, was the sheer amount of questions I was asked by total stranger during our adventure. I was gone for a mere three hours and the Spanish Acquisition began before the bus had even arrived at the stop.
 
Here are just ten of the questions I was asked by people I had never met before. It didn’t bother me because I’m a chatty girl but Lord you would want to be prepared for some of these.
  • Has he been given your second name or the Dad’s? Is the Dad involved yeah?
  • Are you still sore by four weeks? I think I was still squirting tepid water on my bits at that stage.
  • How do you know your baby is getting enough milk? At least with a bottle you can measure it.
  • Will you get him christened soon?
  • Cake at 10am? You must be breastfeeding (I was, and actually loved this one)
  • Make sure you don’t forget about your partner. That’s where things started to go pear shaped for us. I was all about him until the kids came along. (Woah).
  • You giving him a soother? Just watch it now, they can affect speech and cause problems with their teeth eventually (27 days old....)
  • What hospital did you go to? Were you under X (insert consultant’s name) team? (I was).
  • Will you have more kids? (really?)
  • Are you dying for a night out and a bit of a break? (and then proceeded to tell me about a wild night out that was had when their baby was 12 days old).