Insensitivity lousy quality in dad-to-be

Dear Carolyn: My husband of three years and I have finally gotten to where it is practical to try to start a family.

I have given up everything I am supposed to including alcohol and caffeine, even caffeine-free diet soda at his request, and am taking dance classes twice a week to try to get to a healthier weight.

I thought we were on the same page about starting to try until he told me that I need to be healthier, and part of that request is that I first lose 30 pounds.

Now he wants to attend my next doctor’s appointment to prove to me that I am not physically prepared for what I thought we wanted. – Michigan

I’ve been at this gig for 15 years and still, somehow, I can be surprised by the abundance and variety of ways people find to treat their supposed-loved-ones like dirt.

Your doctor won’t say this to you, so I will: Your husband’s insensitivity, sense of entitlement and casual disregard for boundaries between his body and yours do far more to disqualify him as father material than your extra pounds do to rule out motherhood for you.

While I realize you are invested in this marriage to the point where you’re ready to bring children into it today, I’m nevertheless – or perhaps because of that – going to beg you to look closely enough at your years together to see whether this recent bit of arrogance, objectification and, yes, misogyny out of your husband is wildly out of character for him, or just the one time it’s been blatant enough to catch your full attention.

If it’s the former, then go ahead, bring him to your appointment, and let the doctor handle his weight concerns.

If it’s the latter – and please note, this “if” is a nod to the limits of this medium, not to the limits of my conviction – then please deal with this painful truth about the man you married. Better now than when the self-image of a child is wet clay in his hands.