Small Talk

I've noticed since I've been back from maternity leave (about a year now) that whenever I run into someone in the office who I haven't seen for a while, they always ask how my daughter's doing. Not "so, you busy these days?" or "what have you been working on?", which I seem to recall were the types of questions I was asked back before I was pregnant. (When I was visibly pregnant, of course everyone asked me how I was feeling/doing, but that's par for the course when you've got a beach ball sticking out of your tummy, n'est ce pas?)

I'm obviously happy to talk about the Metropolitoddler as a general matter of public policy, but I do wonder whether I've been pigeonholed as The Mommy rather than as The Colleague.

I can't imagine that guys are asked about their kids all the time the way I'm asked about mine. I don't ask guys -- or women -- in the office how their kids are doing, with the exception of a couple of people who had or whose wives had babies right around the same time I did. I find it a little weird that people who I wouldn't characterize as anything more than acquaintances go right to the personal question rather than sticking with more work-specific chitchat.

Has anyone else noticed anything like this? Do all women find themselves being asked about their children while the men are greeted with a more professional array of small talk options --or am I the sole Mama Madonna of Wall Street? Or does everyone get asked about their kids as a friendly gesture and I'm just being hypersensitive given my level of, well, hypersensitivity where my workplace is concerned?

(It bothers me to a certain extent that I, who have never ever ever been concerned with gender issues in the workplace, am now turning into the type of person I formerly rolled my eyes at. But that's a topic for another post.)