I am going through a period of “baby fever” right now. I want a baby (but will realistically wait until my husband is good and ready for fatherhood).
Anyway, give me some good reasons I can relay to him about why we should have one!!!
Anything?
Also, anybody else having baby fever at the moment???
(I guess extra info is that I am nearly 25, he’s 26, we’ve been married for about a year and a half --together for 5 years–. We aren’t rolling in the dough yet, but we aren’t in the poor house either!)
It’s a good tax deduction. If you can be really cheap with the baby and do frugal things like only change diapers after they are really full (the box will suggest somthing like 10 - 15 pounds) or talk other breastfeeding mothers into breastfeeding yours too while they are at it, the baby can more than pay for itself in this way. You and your husband go treat yourselves to a nice steak dinner compliments of the baby cash.
I have ridiculous baby fever…fortunately, mr. jar is willing to go along with it, although he currently refers to our ‘romantic encounters’ as ‘going to the coal mine’ since it’s so mechanical.
Also, not to be a pessimist, but we’ve been trying to get pregnant for almost a year…so don’t wait until the fever’s at a fevered pitch, if you know what I mean. It doesn’t always happen on the first shot.
Mr. Breezy thinks of kids as kind of a “far into the future” thing. I don’t.
I’m not worried about it at all. He also talked about marriage like he’d NEVER do it. Then out of the blue, he popped the question, and we got married about 5 months later. He’s a good husband, and a wonderful person. He’s just never been around kids much.
His MAIN response is that we don’t have money for kid/s right now, so we need to wait. AND, I’m more than willing to wait for a while, BUT that doesn’t make the baby fever let up! hahaha
I guess if I tell him about Shagnasty’s plan, maybe the money won’t be an issue! hahaha
Babies are really useful for finding all the dangerous things in the house that you might not be aware of. Just set the baby down on the floor and follow it around for a few hours. You’ll find all the uncovered sockets, bare wires, loose bits of floor board and sticky things very easily. Also, if you cover the baby’s clothes with masking tape it’ll pick up all the dust and hair on the floor. Then just peel off the tape and throw it away!
Babies give a home that final touch of - lived in-ness. You can always tell a house that includes a baby as soon as you walk in. Nothing says “We’re successful, intelligent and have everything we could possibly want” like a baby.
Babies now come in designer colors and patterns to go with any decor.
Studies show only mature careful adults who plan everything have babies.
Let me tell you something, my dear Breezy, NO ONE can really afford kids, except maybe Bill Gates and Paul McCartney. I know for a fact we can’t afford them, and we’ve got three! The nice thing about having kids before you can afford them is that, when getting pregnant, you won’t get turned down for financing like you do with a car or a house you can’t afford! Also, if Mr. Breezy is into buying innovative stuff, a baby is a great excuse to do that! IME, men pretty much ignore the fact that babies actually NEED very little stuff, and go and purchase the coolest stuff there is, and there’s a LOT of cool stuff for babies!
Does he like dogs? Kids can do all of those tricks and more! Need something destroyed? It’ll be reduced to sub-atomic particles within seconds! Not to mention, if you feel like you’re not spending enough on food per month, by God have a baby! Your grocery bill will increase by orders of magnitude.
There’s a great Baby Blues cartoon out there about people and laundry:
Single: One load per week.
Married, no children: Two loads per week
Married, one child: 897 loads per day.
On second thought, I’m probably not selling this thing too well… Beelzebubba, father of four
Babies are an excellent way to finally catch up on all of those middle-of-the-night shows that you keep missing.
You will feel the unadulterated joy of complete strangers walking up to you and rubbing your belly and proferring their gender guess. What fun!
Have a yearning passion for unsolicited advice? Nothing says “Please tell me again about your breast-feeding troubles” like a 10-lb. ball of joy.
Ankle-biters are very effective at reducing that pesky sex life to 25 minutes in a locked bathroom on Sundays afternoons while Jeff Corwin babysits.
Finally, nothing says “I love you so much” quite like that look your child gives you after drawing a picture on your tan-colored briefcase with a black Sharpie!
Picture your husband wearing a catcher’s mitt.
Picture yourself also wearing a catcher’s mitt.
Envision yourselves at opposite ends of the backyard, tossing your newborn through the air to each other.
Say to your husband: “Who are you gonna play catch with if you don’t have a kid?”
No thanks. Have three of my own.
Reasons to have kids?
1.) You’re tired of sleeping straight through the night.
2.) Having a social life has lost it’s attraction.
3.) You want to explore the wonderful world of poverty.
4.) The thought of spit-up all over your person and all your posessions makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
5.)you want to fulfill your own parents dreams of revenge.
I’m not helping am I?
What’s the dollar amount your husband is planning on salting away before you have enough money to have a kid? Trust me. Unless you win the lottery, you will not save enough. It’s not an all-at-once kind of thing. It’s more like a really, really expensive gym membership: you’ve got a huge startup cost, then the monthly rate, which keeps going up as the years go by.
More presents at Christmas time.
Having somebody naive and clueless around to teach all of our myths: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Halloween…
He probably doesn’t really know what kids (or babies) are like because he’s never been around them as an adult. So you need to find some friends who have babies–little ones, not the kind that are old enough to be obnoxious kids–and go have dinner at their house every week or so. Or babysit for them. Then be sure your husband has to take a turn holding the little baby. Babies sell themselves; you just need to make the opportunity for them to make their pitch to your husband.
And make sure your friend avoids conversations with your husband about how much her body and her sex life changed after giving birth. Maybe her husband shouldn’t be there.
Also, if you’re serious about your husband as a future father, you have to train him for the responsibility. Start out with a hardy potted plant. If it lives for a few months, he can graduate to taking care of a cat. Then comes a dog. If it lives, too, then at least a baby would have some possibility of survival. If the potted plant dies right away, you’ve got some training to do on your husband.
You’re definitely in the time to have kids range. Despite all the heroic stories about 40+ celebrity moms who conceived with the aid of reproductive science, you really don’t want to wait too long as fertility starts dropping off a cliff in the mid thirties (earlier than people previously suspected). You had better get this issue sorted out with him sooner rather than later if he thinks your thirites are the perfect time to start having kids.
Ah yes… reasons for children…What were they again?
A great way to make a point: “See Honey?..that’s how you’re acting right now”… or “That’s * your* daughter, not mine”?
Need excitement!? Nothing is more exciting than experiencing the adrenaline rush of seeing your two year old standing on the top of the refrigerator!!!
But on a serious note, there is really never the perfect time to have a family…there’s always something else you want or want to do or feel is not ready yet. Just do it…everything will fall into place.
I actually have NO fear about him not wanting one in the semi-near future. I figure we’ll probably wait another year.
His brother’s wife had a baby last February, and one of our best friends just found out they are expecting. I think the next year will start wearing on him, and he’ll be excited about having a baby. He honestly just needs to come to the conclusion himself.
His parent’s riding him about the subject just is NOT helping.
Oh well. I’m not trying to turn this into a serious subject by any means! haha
The nice thing about having kids before you can afford them is that, when getting pregnant, you won’t get turned down for financing like you do with a car or a house you can’t afford! Also, if Mr. Breezy is into buying innovative stuff, a baby is a great excuse to do that! IME, men pretty much ignore the fact that babies actually NEED very little stuff, and go and purchase the coolest stuff there is, and there’s a LOT of cool stuff for babies!
Beelzebubba, father of four