I’m convinced that most American parents didn’t realize how much work raising a kid was when they decided to have one.
If they did, we’d have a negative birthrate.
Having a child changes your life irrevocably, in that you will have at least eighteen years with no life. A good parent prioritizes their child’s needs, especially during infancy. They endure a constant state of deprivation: sleep deprivation, cleanliness deprivation, time deprivation, and quiet deprivation.
If you think I know this because my parents were such awesome role models, you must be a new reader. I had a front row seat to the shit show Too Many Children, in which an angry, stressed father lashed out at the kids he never wanted. My siblings and I grew up overly competitive, judgmental, and mean. We were terrible at relationships and had eating disorders.
So of course there was a sequel after my parents divorced and found new spouses: Let’s Have More Children and Fuck Them Up, Too.
As needy teenagers, we were pressed into service, caring for baby half-siblings. We learned how to change diapers, prepare bottles, clean up vomit, and identify everything from strep to roseola.
College, even with 18-21 credits a semester, felt like a vacation. No cooking. No childcare. Only my own laundry to fold.
And my vomit stain removal skills made me popular.
I knew how much work babies were. Which was why I’d hoped to be making more money than my husband when his biological clock started ticking. Then Andy could stay home with the baby he wanted. Just like my Judgmental Genius Doctor Sister and her husband, Georgia Boy.
But Andy’s clock started its final countdown while he made the money that paid our mortgage.
I tried to beat back that damned clock with a reality check.
“If we have a baby, there’s no more talk about quitting your job to run a Bed & Breakfast in New Hampshire,” I warned him. “Not for eighteen years or until I can make money. Babies need health insurance. You’ll have to max out your health care spending account. Baby proof the house. Turn the guest room into a nursery. Give up your dreams of making the extra fridge into a kegerator, even.”
“That’s okay,” Andy said. He hugged me and said dreamily, “A baby.”
I stepped out of the hug. “You know a baby is a screaming machine that only shuts down a few hours at a time, and spits out bodily fluids like the girl in The Exorcist, right? And you know we have to do it ourselves. Twenty-four seven. There’s no convenient grandparent to spirit the baby away on weekends or anything. My mom is dead. My other parental units are too far away.”
“Maybe my parents could come help—”
“Are you outta your goddamned mind?!” I shrieked. Normally I try to be diplomatic about Andy’s intrusive Chinese-American parents, but that kind of insanity had to be nipped in the bud. I chucked marital diplomacy under the bus and raised my voice several decibels. “Your parents treat me like a servant. They expect me to wait on them, how can I do that and take care of a baby?! Plus they nearly burned down our house on their last visit.”
Andy prudently opted not to pursue that tack. “Well, I can help. I can take 3 months of family leave.”
“Yeah, but it’s not paid leave, because the United States sucks,” I grumbled.
Andy, anticipating a delightful, three-month vacation from work — because he truly was clueless about babies — looked crushed. “We don’t have enough in our joint savings to cover that.”
“No. We don’t,” I agreed. Our lack of funds could have tabled all the baby talk. Only my husband looked so very sad. Also, I didn’t want to keep secrets that could be thrown in my face when Andy was fifty and moaning over mythical lost children. “I do, um, have some mutual funds that I could cash out,” I admitted with a sigh. “My grandparents started them when I was a baby. For college. I never used them all up.” Who knew getting a scholarship and graduating in three years would bite me in the ass a decade-and-a-half later?
“I married an heiress!” Andy crowed. He kept crowing as he calculated the fund’s value, which would cover our mortgage and bills for almost exactly three months. Then he gave me a side eye. “Hey. Wait a minute. What other assets have you been hiding from me? ”
“They also gave me 100 shares of Kroger stock.” My paternal grandfather had been a successful tax attorney. My grandmother methodically divested various assets when financially prudent, usually before December 31st.
“Wow. All this stuff you never told me about.”
“Ahem. That’s all pre-marriage stuff and you’re not entitled to it and what if you’d turned out to be a dick and cleaned out our bank accounts and ran off with someone from work?”
Andy gave a shout of laughter. “Have you seen the women I work with?”
“No, because your work is top-secret, I’m not allowed in the building, and it has no windows,” I reminded him. “And how very reassuring that you’re not sampling the work buffet because the food there is so unappetizing.”
“Oh, c’mon, honey. We’ve been together for 5 years. When were you gonna decide I wasn’t a dick?”
“After maybe eleven years, I guess. My dad lasted ten years a couple times.”
“Geez,” Andy said, but he wasn’t really upset. He knew all about Dad and also it’s hard to be upset when your wife makes thousands of dollars magically appear. “We could really do this! And I could stay home with our newborn, too!”
I tossed a Hail Mary. “Or we could take the money and start that B&B you sometimes talk about.”
“No,” Andy shook his head emphatically. “Too risky. Let’s stick to the plan. You keep writing, we have baby, I keep working, and we use the company’s health insurance.”
“Then this is YOUR idea, okay? I just want to make that clear up front. You are responsible. I never want to hear any complaints. No whining ever about how it wrecked your life, okay? No complaining about how much it all costs, or how you had to give up your dream of a B&B. You chose baby. You never get to go back. Every sleepless night, every trip to the Emergency Room, all the costs of whatever sport this kid plays, the higher education costs – this is on you.”
Andy shrugged and said, “That’s fine. I chose baby. Baby!” He swooped in for another hug. I didn’t dodge this one, though I merely stood in his embrace, rigid.
Andy whispered, “Not your dad, honey.”
And then I hugged him back.
Are we expecting some good news? XD
I think it depends on your definition of good.
Babies = endless treasure trove of source material for blog posts. They’ll be the gift that keeps on giving…forever. 😀
They take your time and money and give you blog posts. Huh. I am not entirely certain that’s a good deal.
A cliffhanger! Just like the last show of the season! Hopefully you’ll blog again soon…..
With Andy’s recent injury, it’s literally taking me days to get posts written. I think I started this one last Friday. I’ve been up at 4:30 getting bits written.
Hmmm…twins? Triplets? Foreign adoption?
Oh, you are so spiking my guns, dude. These are all future posts!
Let me guess, you convinced Andy to get pregnant and give birth. 🙂
If you are a SAHM, I bet you watch Megan Kelly Today on NBC. Amirite?
Perish the thought. It’s Faux News 24-7 around here.
Just to balance things out, here are some positive things about babies:
1. They let you read while you’re nursing them, and then they fall asleep and you can keep reading. (I read lots of good books while I was nursing.)
2. Before they’re mobile, you can leave them in a safe spot with an interesting toy or two, and they’ll entertain themselves.
(Confession: My kids were pretty easy–or maybe I’ve forgotten.)
Wow. Your kids WERE easy! I don’t remember my siblings playing quietly by themselves. I remember hours and hours of entertaining those babies and keeping them from crying, lest they wake up my sleeping mother or set off my dad’s temper.
Very eager for the rest of the story.
The rest of the story takes a while to tell, and there’s lots of ups and downs. Also, finding writing time right now is tough, thanks to Mr. Invalid Andy. I suddenly have to do (gulp!) all the cooking and sprinklers as well as waiting on him and driving him around. Ugh.
My Christmas present will be not cooking next year. Apparently I need to become a food blogger. Do you get to eat free? Wait, don’t tell me if you don’t. I’m clinging to my illusions.
Hahaha. Sometimes I get to eat ‘free’. But there are always strings attached, of course. Sorry about the invalid!
GASP!!! This is big news! I share your fears about babies and I didn’t even grow up with the horde of siblings you had. I’m afraid of losing my independence and freedom…. but people tell me it’s all worth it in the end?
I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story!!!
So about those people who say it is all worth it? I think a lot of them are lying. But what else can they say, really? The die is cast and they can never retreat back over the Rubicon.
But kids are HARD. They are not for everyone, and I wish more people were honest about that. Unless you really want kids and are prepared to make the sacrifices, you should not have them. A resentful parent is a crappy parent.
Oh what big news.
Our kids were “planned” so we really wanted them. I’d say it all depends also on the child when it comes how much work you have with them. Our first child was very easy to take care and barely ever cried. Our daughter now, oh she is the exact opposite, a real demon. She has already everyone in the family under control…
See, everyone with an easy baby has two. Well, except for my idiot parents.
We really do think that in case Nathan would have been like his sister…well that there would be just Nathan and never any other child!
Oh, the intrigue!
I don’t have kids and I only have one brother who is 2.5 years younger than me so I haven’t really experienced how annoying and time consuming kids can be, but I know the answer is VERY and ALL THE TIME…
See, even you know more than Andy. 🙂
Well, well, well. I suppose the next post will be called “A Bun in the Oven”? Eh? *wink, wink, nudge,nudge*, So adorable that Andy wants the kid and not you.And I loved what he said at the end.
Maybe you could teach the dogs to babysit? I’m sure that’s an Irish folk tale…don’t look up the ending though. The dad screws it up.
Have fun!!!! 😀
The dad always screws it up. LOL.
if you ever need someone to convince you why you should have baby, let me just mail you Momzilla – she’s like a record with one song, Justin Bieber’s Baby – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4 🙂
Ugh, no, I’ve had my in-laws trying to convince me for years. That’s like 200 phones calls of my FIL barking, “Where’s my grandson?!” before even saying “hello.”
You can give him one of those ‘where’s Wally?’ Books and tell him to find him there
He’d throw it at me and scream, “Where’s my grandson?!”
throw it back and say FIND HIM! 😀
I really, really, don’t want that man poking at my uterus, thanks very much.
Sounds awful!