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Kelton Wright's avatar

One of the couples down the very short street from me just adopted their first baby. I don’t know them very well, but the first time I saw them with the baby all swaddled, I practically yelled at them to take my phone number and call me whenever they wanted someone else to just hold the baby for a minute so they could take a breath. Since I work from home, it’s a very real option that I can come over to help. Part of me is trying to enforce the old precedent from this town that everyone pitches in, as the old timers complain about how people don’t get together here anymore. My hope is to have a baby next year, and we’ll be three hours from a good hospital and our closest relatives will be a 16 hr drive. We chose where we settled, but whew a little additional infrastructure could mean so much, especially if we have any difficulties. Always appreciate you pushing these conversations and can’t wait to check out this book.

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Laura C's avatar

If my mom doesn't give me this book for Christmas I will be surprised and disappointed.

That Arianna Rebolini post...it is so important to be able to talk about that. And a related but distinct idea that a lot of our lives would be better if we didn't have kids. Like, my kid is one of the best things in my life -- but that's partly because my kid's existence makes it so difficult for other parts of my life to be good and sustainable. A ton of things would be better if I hadn't had him, say if he had been a third miscarriage and we'd given up. I wouldn't have *him* and at this point it's really crushing to imagine that, but, like, those first weeks of the pandemic when everyone else was talking about the exciting meals they were making and my husband kept asking what we should make, I kept saying "you don't get it, those people have extra time now. we do not have extra time."

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