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Given that we have 5 friends about to give birth between now and September (5! did they put something in the water in NC? Was there a blackout I missed? Did I accidentally spike the Christmas punch with Clomid?) I'm about to get a bunch of second-hand experience watching how my friends' lives change as a result of having kids. I hope that'll provide some clarity.
I babysat stellaluna's nephew with her a few weeks ago, and paying attention to someone else constantly is a real PITA. Particularly when the consequences of not paying attention are that the kid could die. (I'd probably be one of those lax parents by default...I'd figure "how much trouble could the kid get into while I fix myself a sandwich?" and then find them choking on a sock or something.) Is it horribly naive to think that you can just let them hang out and get into mischief (how much is it really going to hurt them if they chew on the dog's toys?) and not have them die or have social services take them away? Do you HAVE to watch them like hawks 24/7? Is it just that parents are so worried about the unthinkable consequences of unlikely mishaps that they hover constantly?
Is it possible to be a sorta slacker parent ("sure, kid, crawl around the house for a bit while I fold the clothes...I've picked everything up that you could eat, the cabinets are all locked, knock yerself out!") and still have a very good chance that the kid will survive to adulthood, or at least to school age, is what I'm asking. Or are you sentenced to stare at this fascinating bundle of "let me stick my finger in that and see what happens" until they're old enough to know better?
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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