A lot of my friends are married and having babies. A lot. How many you ask? Enough that I can tell you about breastfeeding and tongue ties and different sleep training methods and feeding techniques as well as personal parenting styles and bedtime routines. I can change a diaper, I can carry a kid with one hand (leaving the other one free for having a drink), I’m perfecting my raspberries, and I genuinely believe that having a baby/kid fall asleep in your arms or on your chest is one of the best feelings in the world.
I’m thrilled for my friends–I really am–as they start or expand their families. Sure there are times where it feels like we live in two different worlds because our day-to-day lives are so different and the things that stress us out or keep us up are different, as are our priorities, but how can you not be happy for someone if they’re happy? (Though can I just go ahead and say that what makes you happy may not make someone else happy so can we stop forcing our ideas on other people? This is not specific to my friends with kids, but it’s something to be mindful of as not everyone wants to have kids. Ditto with exclusionary conversations. But I’ll save those rants for another day.) I digress, but before I do, did I mention how cute these kids are? Go stalk my Instagram if you don’t believe me. A-dor-able.
While I hear my friends trade advice and swap stories about the latest incident involving their kid, I, too, have some sage advice to offer. (Yes, me. The unmarried traveling friend with no kids.) If you have kids or are expecting one, take a child First Aid/CPR course. You’d want anyone who spends time with your kids, such as babysitters, nannies, teachers, etc. to take one, yet I’m not sure how many parents themselves know the basics of CPR or choking, especially for an infant. It’s different when you’re dealing with a little person. While you hope that your intuition will kick in, wouldn’t it be easier to be able to rely on training that’s proven to help? The only thing worse than seeing an infant or child choke is not knowing how to help one. That’s my two cents.
Pretty “sej” advice if I do say so myself. Keep making amazing little people for me to meet and love on, but lets make sure we’re keeping them safe too.
