Chivalry is Gone

So yesterday I learned that chivalry is gone. Well, maybe not gone, but definitely disappearing in our men these days. I do want to make one thing clear before I even go in to this: My husband is a knight in shining armor with no lack of manners or chivalric tendencies, so he is therefore exempt from this entire conversation. (Thank you, Peyton, for being the way you are, and thank you Cheryl for raising him that way.)

Now back to the pigs that call themselves men... I am eight months pregnant. Any woman who is eight months pregnant could not be mistaken for, say, a strong, energetic, skinny, non-pregnant woman. Five months, maybe. Possibly even six months. But not eight. It's obvious and out there for everyone to see. Above is a picture to prove it. This is me right now, typing this blog. (Turns out my computer can take pictures of me as I sit right in front of it. I love this new Mac.)

I was at the outlet malls with my sister, mother and grandmother yesterday. We had been shopping for hours, and it was time to go home. We had rented a wheelchair for my grandmother, who has trouble standing and walking. My mother and sister had to go pick up a large rug from the back of a store, so I volunteered to take my grandmother to the bathroom, then return the wheelchair. The two of us would meet Mom and my sister outside in 10 minutes.

I wheeled my grandmother up to the doors of the food court. A nicely dressed young man, probably in his thirties, walked in ahead of us, and so I assumed he would hold the door for the very pregnant girl pushing a very old woman in a very hard to maneuver wheelchair... apparently I was wrong. He let the door slam right on us. My grandmother's chair was stuck half-way through the door, and I know that guy saw us. I was horrified. It took me several tries to kick open the door far enough to get my grandmother and my big self through the door. Even more saddening is the fact that people were walking through the set of doors right next to me and not helping, even as I struggled to free the chair from the door. Where have all of the knights gone?

I was hoping this complete absence of social etiquette was an isolated incident. Nope. The male race disappointed me again about five hours later. My husband and I were meeting my in-laws for dinner at a restaurant at Atlantic Station. This is another large shopping/dining area located on top of a large parking garage. Since my husband is a prince, he wanted to make sure I didn't have to walk from the parking garage to the restaurant in my very large"condition," as I like to call it. So he stopped the car right in front of the restaurant door so I could walk right in and avoid the hike and the stairs. Now, it takes a minute for someone who is eight months pregnant to get herself out of an extremely tall SUV while carrying her coat and purse. While I was getting myself out, another car pulled up behind us and began to HONK at me! I am not even kidding. I turned to see who would be so rude only to discover that it was another pitiful excuse for a man. A well-dressed man in a nice car who should know better that to honk at pregnant ladies trying to get out of tall SUV's. I proceeded to spill things from my purse onto the ground on purpose just to hold this guy up for a few more minutes. I made a big production of squatting down to pick up my belongings, taking care to look right at that rude man the whole time. My husband wanted to go back there and throttle him (like a good knight), but we were running late, and I told him to just go.

So, chivalry is nearly gone. I know there are still a few good men left out there, but I am afraid they are becoming extinct. I will remember this as I raise my son.