Back before I knew any better, and with a long track record of elaborate online pranks with lead up and “photo evidence”, I took advantage of access to a 12-week scan of an older friend’s baby and carefully cut together my own name with the letters available to “photoshop” (MSPaint) my own scan, posting that our “big news” alluded to the day before was a baby (it was actually the fact that we were moving across the country after graduation and the wedding).
I like to think that if I had known better I would have passed up the “opportunity”. Knowing me, I would have still thought of it, and challenged myself to the photoshop job for fun and shown it to my husband as “look what I can do”, but would have stopped myself from carrying out the prank.
Please pass along the word: fake announcements are very hurtful to those chasing the dream of making their own announcement, whether it’s because they’ve never had a positive test or because they’ve been pregnant and never made it to the point where they felt comfortable broadcasting it widely.