A friend of mine just revealed that her daughter is pregnant with her first child. This is happy news, and they waited until passing the first trimester before announcing the pregnancy. According to my friend, her daughter and her husband had tried their best to keep their plans to conceive private. They were afraid of jinxing themselves, and understood that it could take a long time for conception.
My friend shared that when the couple first decided to start trying for a baby, her daughter told her best friend about it in confidence. The next day, they went to a school reunion, during which her best friend announced the news to several people. Everyone congratulated my friend’s daughter, but she was fuming. She had told her friend about trying to get pregnant in confidence, and was hurt that she felt the need to spill the beans. Her friend’s response? Oh, it doesn’t matter. We don’t really know those people that well.
I often hear people making excuses for their gossiping by saying that the person they’re telling doesn’t really know the person involved, or that it will never get back to other people because they live so far away. If these people have no connection to the person involved, why share their private business? I’d hate to think that someone’s second-cousin’s neighbor knew some intimate detail about my life.
If someone tells you a secret, it’s a secret. It’s very simple. Respect that and keep your lips zipped. One day you’ll have your own secret you want to keep private.