Baby Talk

Had dinner on Saturday with J and E. They brought along their eight-month-old girl, a precociously alert baby who looks as though she’ll be reading Virgil within a year or two. Watching them attend to the baby, I was reminded of how much work it is to raise a child. Driving a baby to a restaurant; keeping a baby safe in a public place; putting a baby to sleep: all of these tasks require vigilance, if not skill. I wonder if I’m one of those people who anticipate all the pleasures of having a child and foresee none (or few) of the burdens. I hope not. I do want to be a father someday; my life would seem incomplete without the experience of having a child. This much I know: my experience of fatherhood will hinge a lot on the partner who is experiencing motherhood alongside me. As J and E demonstrate, the raising of a baby is a team effort. Woe to the baby who doesn’t have a good team raising her. Woe to the mother or father who doesn’t have a good partner backing him/her up.

Advertisement