Gametes In Love

Do you find that when you ask the parents of a newborn how it’s going, you get a very generic “It’s fine!” or “We’re doing great!” response? Really? Are those families really doing that wonderfully? Can everything really be that easy for them?

I ask because I find myself doing it too… when things aren’t 100% fine or 100% great. Now, don’t get me wrong — we are doing pretty well, but we have some hiccups too. I realize that some parents would love to have the sleeping issues we’re dealing with, and I am grateful that we don’t have bigger fish to fry.

So why then, the short “no problems here” response?

Is it because we’re afraid others will think we’re bad parents if we’re honest?

Is it because we don’t want to appear pessimistic, or ungrateful for the children we are blessed with?

or Is it because we’re afraid to scare of other potential parents?

For me, it’s mostly because I don’t feel like getting into the details with whomever asks at the time. I guess I need to come up with a set of short (but honest) responses. Things like “We had a rough night last night, but we’re getting through it”, or “This current growth spurt is hard but we’re managing”. What do you think? At least that way, I’m truthful about what’s really going on. This way if you ever hear me say “It’s great!”, feel free to challenge me and call me a liar 🙂

Oh… and in terms of how it’s going so far: G is growing well (above his birth-weight in record time); S and I are tired and sleepy; G still cries (but less now that we know how to comfort him better) and things are improving.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Raising Baby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.