Babies

I have hit that time in life when friends start to have babies.  I have two friends, who both got married on Oct 8 of last year and they are both pregnant with boys.  They had both dated their husbands for about 7 years before they got married and they both met in bars. 
One friend, I'll call her Keegan, will be a great mom.  She has her shit together, shes well traveled, shes fun and cool.  Her husband is a solid guy who will be a great dad.  All into bonding and doing right by the kid.  I hope that one day they have a girl too because I think he would be an amazing dad to a little lady.

My other friend Lynn, I'm a little more worried about her.  Shes a very nervous person.  Her husband, who I used to like, I'm feeling more ambivalent about lately.  In part because they live in a pigstye, which I always see as the outward representation of a bad relationship.  I'm also not sure that he's going to be a loving and supportive father or just the type that works a long day and then watches football.   He's made some poor choices in his life, settled for things and I think he will become resentful.  Lynn on the other hand, worked hard, followed her dreams and has a good career, which she may have to give up quite a bit of once the baby comes.  She is only planning to take off 3 months for maternity leave, which I think is uncivilized.   But as they are both born and bred New Yorkers, their sense of balance has always been pretty far off the mark.

I want all future parents to read "Bringing up Bebe" because there are some stupid things American parents do:

1.  You are not at the kids beck and call.  You are asking for trouble if you train them this way.

2.  You need your own life still.  You still need to work on your relationship with your partner.

3. Don't follow the goddamn kid around all the time, let them play, let them live, let them explore!  If you don't let the kid learn how to take some responsibility and learn to deal with things as they come it will be miserable for its whole life! 

Lynn and I were at the Botanical Gardens yesterday.  There were a bunch of kids running around, having a good time.  Lynn was like, oh it's so overwhelming, all these kids.  I was like eh, kids I'm used to.  It's parents I hate.