Putting on a swimsuit for the first time postpartum to hit up the swimming pool can be a nerve-racking experience for anyone. But a mommy-and-me swim class is no place to be shamed for being in a bathing suit, no matter the style or how you feel you look in it. Sadly, that's exactly what happened to one woman — who dared wear a two-piece swimsuit to her child's swim class and faced the wrath of one of the other mothers.
The mom and her 6-month-old have been going to a swim class together.
In a since-deleted post on Reddit, the Original Poster (OP) explained that typically she's one of the few moms who actually goes in the pool with her baby. Usually it's the dads who are willing to get in the water while the moms watch from the sides.
"Due to my husband’s job, he is unable to attend baby swim class so I am often flying solo," she wrote.
It was all going swimmingly -- until a new baby came to class one week.
That means there was a new dad too.
"As the father got into the pool, he said hi and I returned the greeting," she recalled. "I then asked him how old his son was and we made about 30 seconds of small talk before the class started."
Class was wrapping up and the mom and her little guy were heading out of the pool.
That's when the man's wife approached her with some unhelpful advice.
"You know, if you are going to continue to swim with husbands and fathers, you should really dress more modestly," she told the OP.
The mom was pretty much covered.
In her post, she linked to the exact bathing suit she wore that day and it was — a tankini. Hardly the stuff of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover.
"You could see maybe three inches of my stomach," she wrote. "And not that it matters, but I am completely flat chested with no butt, so it’s not like my voluptuous curves were a distraction or anything."
But all the mom said was "Thank you for your opinion" and kept walking.
In truth, the OP found the other mom's comments to be ridiculous.
"However, I was telling another mom friend about it and she said that maybe I should reconsider my bathing suit moving forward," she continued.
Her friend told her she should invest in a one-piece suit and agreed that she would be uncomfortable if there was another mom in her son's swim class "who [was] showing off too much skin to her husband and children."
"Anyway, I don't want to be the inappropriate pool mom, but at the same time, it's a baby swim class and my bathing suit choice should was hardly inappropriate (in my opinion)," she added.
So was she wrong?
Most commenters couldn't figure out what the big deal was.
"It was an obvious [Not the A–hole]," one commenter wrote. "Anyways, but that tankini is absurdly modest. She really thinks her husband is going to lose control over a peek of your belly button?"
"Next time it happens OP should tell the wife if her husband can't control himself he shouldn't be around kids," someone else wrote.
A third person was shocked that the new mom got flack for such a modest bathing suit:
"I was expecting something with a bunch of cleavage and low early-2000s era style bottoms. Not something I would wear! And even if OP was wearing a super sexy swimsuit that isn't an excuse for the woman’s comment," the person wrote.
"Also, do all the dudes wear shirts?" the person wrote. "If not they need to seriously cover up. The hussies."
It seems like this mom had some insecurities that were not the OP's problem. She should wear whatever she darn well pleases to her son's swim class.
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