Having a baby!
If you're reading this, you probably already know...but my lovely wife and I are having a baby! And VERY soon. It's due April 25, and here's one of our only pics of it thus far (from months ago):
With the impending fatherhood comes all sorts of feelings, but I have to confess I'm not as anxious as I once was. When the baby first started to show, I was filled with what can only be described as mild panic at the concept of spending the next 20 or so years of my life raising another human being. I'm not sure I did such a great job with my own upbringing (what there was for me to do of it), so how can I be expected to do a better job with a new one? I don't know that I can, but I also don't know that I can't, so all I can do is what parents have done for time immemorial: do my best.
Of course, this wasn't by accident -- having a baby, that is. The wife and I have wanted to since...well, since we fell in love, I think. We had to weigh some issues before settling, though, and chief among these was why have a baby to begin with! Of course, any loving couple wants some issue of their love to nurture and adore, but let's face facts: the world sucks, it's overcrowded, and neither my wife nor I feel entirely comfortable bringing another life onto the planet to fill it even more and then just suffer through existence. So, why have a child?
What it came down to is pretty much narcissism. Similar to my attitude on teaching, we kind of came down to the concept that if a person feels they can do a good job at something (in this case, making a human), then they should do it. The world does suck, and it is overcrowded, but it won't get better with the worst parents having the biggest families! My wife and I feel like we can do a solid job of raising a rational, decent human being, who will hopefully have some talents with which to improve life on this planet in his or her (we don't know the sex yet!) brief time on it. Whether we're successful only time will tell, but we intend to give it a better shot than just raising another blob of meat to take up space, energy and food. Obviously, we have high hopes but they feel attainable. We'll see how we're feeling after a year or so of nothing but feeding and changing diapers, though...
Wish us luck!
With the impending fatherhood comes all sorts of feelings, but I have to confess I'm not as anxious as I once was. When the baby first started to show, I was filled with what can only be described as mild panic at the concept of spending the next 20 or so years of my life raising another human being. I'm not sure I did such a great job with my own upbringing (what there was for me to do of it), so how can I be expected to do a better job with a new one? I don't know that I can, but I also don't know that I can't, so all I can do is what parents have done for time immemorial: do my best.
Of course, this wasn't by accident -- having a baby, that is. The wife and I have wanted to since...well, since we fell in love, I think. We had to weigh some issues before settling, though, and chief among these was why have a baby to begin with! Of course, any loving couple wants some issue of their love to nurture and adore, but let's face facts: the world sucks, it's overcrowded, and neither my wife nor I feel entirely comfortable bringing another life onto the planet to fill it even more and then just suffer through existence. So, why have a child?
What it came down to is pretty much narcissism. Similar to my attitude on teaching, we kind of came down to the concept that if a person feels they can do a good job at something (in this case, making a human), then they should do it. The world does suck, and it is overcrowded, but it won't get better with the worst parents having the biggest families! My wife and I feel like we can do a solid job of raising a rational, decent human being, who will hopefully have some talents with which to improve life on this planet in his or her (we don't know the sex yet!) brief time on it. Whether we're successful only time will tell, but we intend to give it a better shot than just raising another blob of meat to take up space, energy and food. Obviously, we have high hopes but they feel attainable. We'll see how we're feeling after a year or so of nothing but feeding and changing diapers, though...
Wish us luck!
posted by aliceboy at 1:14 PM
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