I know that the phrase is well intentioned but whenever I hear it I cringe. I cannot help it because:
A) Falling pregnant did not take any of my brains, nor any of my planning and no real effort..... A little engaging and fun exertion, but no effort.
And:
B) Giving birth took endurance, strength, stamina and a million other nuanced yet unnamable states .... but, cleverness was not one of them.
So, I gently decline that particular praise for its misunderstanding and gently pose the question, "where does saying one is 'clever' leave those who face difficulty getting pregnant, or giving birth?"
As dumb?
I think you'd all agree that is certainly is not the case. So lets remove that word from the pregnant vernacular shall we. Come up with another word to praise a woman’s fecundity and endurance.
I tell you what is clever .... realising if you dress your two year old in shorts that are too big for him (upon his insistence), he has to hold them up as he bolts around the stupid market and thus is unable to pull nearly as much from the shelves.. Score! That discovery was up there with the discovery that pushing the pram in the direction of the sun forces the child's eyes closed and forced closed eyes force sleep and voila... Cleverness!
