Older man 'thanked' a new mom for not getting fat during pregnancy, and insisted it was a compliment—her response was exactly what his remark deserved
Motherhood often comes with enough pressure without strangers feeling entitled to comment on a woman's body. A Reddit user who goes by u/Any-Picture-3743 shared her experience of receiving an unusual "compliment" on August 18, 2025. While grocery shopping with her one-year-old son, the mother noticed an older couple smiling in her direction and assumed they were admiring the child. Instead, the man made an unexpected remark about her weight before casually walking away. She later encountered the couple again at the self-checkout, where the interaction escalated into a public exchange that quickly drew the attention of nearby shoppers.
The encounter began when the older man looked at the new mom and remarked, "Hey, thanks for having a baby and not getting fat." The unexpected comment left her momentarily speechless, but she did call him "rude." However, rather than apologizing, he later approached her again at the self-checkout and insisted he had only been trying to compliment her. The mom immediately pushed back, calling the comment "sexist and weird." Their exchange was loud enough to catch the attention of other shoppers, who began asking what had been said. After hearing the full story, several women reportedly expressed their disgust, with some responding, "Ew, that's gross."
In a satisfying turn of events, amid the growing disapproval, the man abandoned his shopping cart and hurried toward the exit. Yet for many, the most unsettling part was not the original remark but the man's repeated insistence that objectifying her body somehow counted as a compliment. She later explained that losing the baby weight had come down largely to luck, not effort, making his comment particularly insensitive toward the countless mothers whose postpartum experiences look very different. In her view, praising one woman by putting countless others down is neither flattering nor respectful.
Like the woman in the store, readers were equally disgusted by the old man's behavior. u/Live-Tomorrow-4865 said, "This guy probably goes around telling women to 'Smile!'" Meanwhile, u/Baguettes_cigarettes commented, "As a mother who was shocked breastfeeding didn't automatically make me thin again and took 3 years to lose the baby weight, I thank you." u/NiobeTonks wrote, "Well done. Women’s post-natal bodies don’t exist to please him."
The mother's experience reflects a broader issue documented in research. According to studies published in PubMed, weight stigma affects many women during pregnancy and the postpartum period, with judgment coming not only from strangers but also from family, the media, and healthcare settings. One study found that nearly one in five women reported experiencing weight stigma from healthcare providers.
Among women with pre-pregnancy obesity, 28.4% identified healthcare professionals as a source of such stigma, with obstetricians (33.8%) and nurses (11.3%) reported most frequently. Together, the findings highlight how comments about a mother's body can come from nearly every corner of society, often when support is needed most.