On the subject of children
August 27, 2009 on 9:46 am | In introspective, family | 5 CommentsSo we seem to be nearing the time when we ought to have kids. I think now that we’ve bought a home and become all responsible and whatnot, it would pretty much make sense to begin expanding the Wason name.
But of course, there’s reasonable hesitancy. I mean, we’re totally one of those couples who are visibly disappointed when seated near parents with small kids in restaurants. We quit going to Red Robin altogether because of the kid-friendliness, and Chili’s is dancing awfully close to getting the same treatment.
Growing up, I was never asked to babysit. Not once. I’m not sure if it’s because I didn’t have younger siblings and didn’t live near my younger cousins or what, but I guess I just didn’t strike any parents as the babysitting type. Which was fine with me. I reacted to children the same way I did with dogs. Dogs love me. They see me, they run to me, they lick me and jump on me. And I laugh and say something like “Oh wow! He sure is friendly! Down, boy! Haha, what a cute doggie. Go to your owner!” Which is Wendy for “Wow, I sure am uncomfortable! I hope I can get this thing off me without petting it, because it smells horrible! Uggggh go away go away go away.” I know, people who don’t like dogs are heartless and awful, blah blah, all of that. But it’s just me.
I admit it: I’m selfish. And I see the sacrifices people make when they have kids. How their lives immediately revolve around their kid. If their kid is grumpy, they have to go home. They can’t go out to eat in restaurants. Oh, stop, hang on. I know what parents say. Oh, you just keep doing what you did before and you make the kid get used to it; you can still go to restaurants and hang out with friends! Yeah okay, that’s technically true. But you go to restaurants and wolf down your food so you can distract your kid long enough to get the check, so that the kid doesn’t scream and cause people like me to stare. Sure, you hang out with friends; after the kid has gone to sleep (best hangout times=after 8 p.m.). Otherwise your friends must develop selective hearing, so that instead of “MOOOOOMMMY I WANT JUICE NO NOT THAT JUICE I WANT JUICE MOMMY MOMMY MOMMMY!!!” you actually hear “No, I actually used low fat sour cream in that recipe and I think it turned out better.”
The thing is, I love going out to eat. I love hanging out with friends, or going uninterrupted during phone calls. I love being free. I do. I guess I just need to believe it when people say that all of the crap you go through as a parent is totally worth it. And since Brandon and I have been married 7 years, we’ve had much more time alone than many couples. I know Brandon would be an amazing dad. I can even tell it by the way he interacts with our cats. I have no doubt in my mind that Brandon would be an incredible father, and that in fact he should be a father simply because (and I know this sounds cheesy) he has so much to give. I think I’d be a pretty good mom as well. And I’m pretty sure we’d have a cute baby, since I was pretty cute up until mid-elementary school, and Brandon won a baby beauty pageant. So there are pros and cons. I think we just have to ignore the cons until after it’s too late to turn back.