My darling sister in law, who is as cool as stfthe other side of the pillow, posted a link to the following site:
stfuparents.tumblr.com
For those of you who are acronym impaired, the name of the site suggests that those of us who have spawned cease commenting.
I'm of two minds about this. (Longtime readers no doubt think I am of two minds about almost everything.)
On the one hand, there are few things more obnoxious and self absorbed than a first time parent. When it is happening to you, it is all encompassing and unusual and miraculous, and you don't long consider the fact that human beings have been doing what you are doing, well, since there have been human beings.
On the other hand, what you're doing is terribly hard and somewhat important.
I guess I object to snarky putdowns of new parents by the uninitiated.
You'll get yours, though.
Hope you don't mind... I linked you to my post. I gave you credit for putting the bug in my ear about people who don't have kids giving advice to people who do when they don't know squat. :)
ReplyDeleteNot at all...
ReplyDeleteI was completely consumed with my first child. I'm amazed at how casual I am about my second. I just smile at first-timers. They'll get over it; I did. But I find their baby-centric behavior cute, not annoying. Perhaps because I've been there.
ReplyDeleteOh, exactly. I can see how it would be annoying to a non parent friend-
ReplyDelete"You never do anything fun anymore!"
Well, yeah. You have responsibilities now. Sorry.
Those people, by and large, will get their comeuppance, probably.
As a parent (one of my own and a stepchild), I still am open to advice from non-parents. My thought is that they were kids once too and maybe I am too close to see another POV especially that of my child in a situation.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is now a first time parent of a 9m old baby. ALl I can say is that I sure hope I wasn't as bad as she is. She makes me crazy with the overreacting calls to possible baby illnesses -- The baby sneezed twice in an hour. Is she sick? Do I need to go to the doc? -- however, I smile and gladly accept the photo or two per day cell phone messages. I know I was pretty bad about that... gave out ultrasound photos to my family and put them on my LJ for friends. Yep, I was *that* person.
You're a better person than I, then, in more ways than one. I don't take kindly to parenting advice from non veterans.
ReplyDeleteI should accept more criticism, given that I'm so mediocre at it, though.
It's not my fault, though. I lost the instruction manual, and I can't find the FAQ page for this kid.
:-)
I WISH they can with a FAQ page.
ReplyDeleteMy son is a mere 3 and already his personality is so hard-wired, and his ability to think and imagine and feel is so far ahead of his ability to verbalize that I play a constant guessing game of "what's really going on in his head?" He approaches his world so differently than I do.
As for his 1-year old sister, she's a complete unknown. She appears to like hip-hop and she'll eat anything, including paper.
It's a strange kind of falling in love, falling in love with your kids.