Comments | phoenixredux: Babies!!

phoenixredux

Babies!!

Jan 22, 2010 12:49

Seems like I'm surrounded by pregnant people and fresh new babies. My co-worker's wife is two days past due, and there's a lot of Baby Rabies going around. So I think it's time for a poll. Sorry if this triggers issues for anybody, I'm not trying to bring you down. Tell me to fuck off in the comments if you'd like. For the rest of you, please tell ( Read more... )

baby, polls

Comments 69

perruche_verte January 23 2010, 01:54:49 UTC

I've decided I just can't keep congratulating people when they reproduce. Why are congratulations in order for doing something that a bacterium does a few dozen times a day, something you don't even need a license to do? They make you get a license to keep a dog, or raise chickens in your backyard. Taking near-total responsibility for a human life is a little more involved than that, or it should be. It's something I can't ever see myself doing.

I respect those who are willing to take it on, but I'll congratulate them when their child makes the honor roll, graduates from high school, gets into college or an apprenticeship, gets her first real job.

eyelid January 27 2010, 20:16:54 UTC

I don't think people congratulate on pregnancy because it's an achievement (though for some of us, it is). People congratulate on pregnancy because for the couple involved it is a happy event (in theory).

I.e., if you said "I won the lottery!" one might say "congratulations!"

jwright_71673 January 23 2010, 02:40:29 UTC

I think it's funny you posted this poll on the day of my vasectomy. :-)

And for the record, no, I've never had baby rabies.

malefica_v January 23 2010, 03:00:43 UTC

Congrats on the snippage, and hurrah for jogging home right afterward!

phoenixredux January 23 2010, 06:08:57 UTC

Sorry, dude. But yeah, there's a lot of reproductive choice going on now, and that is one of the issues at hand. In your case, that hand is holding a sack of frozen pearl onions. But more power to you. I'm not sure I'm ready to engage in that sort of body modification.

jwright_71673 January 23 2010, 16:04:55 UTC

It does feel a little strange, tbh. It's hard to explain, because for us it's 100% the right thing to do, but there's definitely a kind of emotional response. Like we're permanently closing the door on a collection of potentialities or whatever; I don't know if I'm explaining it very well.

But when it was all over I just felt a tremendous sense of relief, really.

luminairex January 23 2010, 07:46:42 UTC

I like the act of making babies a lot more than making babies. I'd have no issues with raising a child if I brought one into the world, but I'm not going out of my way to make one!

All of my babies will be accidents :)

phoenixredux January 25 2010, 17:56:32 UTC

So THAT'S why you're fleeing to New Zealand. Somewhere in America, there's a posse of single moms looking for you. :)

luminairex January 26 2010, 01:24:44 UTC

If I have an illegitimate child somewhere, it's already in New Zealand. Suffice to say, you haven't lived until you've heard a Kiwi woman come.

giddykiwi January 23 2010, 07:54:16 UTC

Don't get me wrong. I love my nieces and nephew. But most other kids bug the hell out of me.

My ex-husband and I made a half-hearted attempt at getting pregnant when I was about 25 and was convinced by other people that I "should be having a kid now." That's when the fertility issues were discovered, and it was like a huge weight was lifted off my uterus. I am sooooooo grateful that I never had kids. Yes, they are great and a blessing and blah, blah, blah, but I also see the tremendous amount of conflicts my brother and sister go through, and I just can't imagine dealing with them.

I've also known a lot of people to get pregnant "by accident," and now whenever anybody tells me they're pregnant, I have no idea how to react. Am I happy? Am I mad? Am I sad? Am I smad? Ugh. No fanks.

Also, I have a lot of dreams where I am pregnant, and the baby's movement is visible through my skin or it comes out like the Alien baby or is somehow physically deformed. *shudder*

eyelid January 27 2010, 20:18:27 UTC

the baby's movement IS visible through the skin late in pregnancy.

giddykiwi January 28 2010, 01:27:09 UTC

LOL. Yeah, I found that out the hard way when my sister was pregnant. It totally squicked me out because I'd been having that dream BEFORE I saw it, and then to see my dream come true in real life was...ick. I'm sure it's a lovely and wonderful experience for the parent(s)-to-be, tho. :P

Nearly an old phart malefica_v January 23 2010, 18:01:35 UTC

For some reason this poll prompts a more personal reply than most of my responses to someone else's LJ posts.

I'm on the verge of "too old" to breed. Mind you, my fertility is intact and unregulated, and I know where to find compatible plumbing to accomplish such a deed. Even so, if I felt baby hunger it would possibly take heroic extremes just because the female body ceases to be quite so fecund after it's been dropping eggs for several decades. Thankgawds!

I am post-parental. My beloved Offsprung sprang into adulthood years ago. My prior parenthood was an unintended consequence of an unplanned relationship. I'm really, really relieved that the kid turned out OK and is a person I like, respect, and admire ( ... )