I
should have known that the whole '3rd Child' conversation wasn't just going to
disappear into the memory banks and never resurface. I had hoped, I guess, that
Philippa's comments on Sunday would be left with me and she'd let me ponder it
and mull it over, but I forgot that my wife just doesn't operate that way. She
gets an idea in her head and it stays at the forefront of everything and she
expects it to be the same for me. So, as soon as I walked in tonight it was
raised as a topic of discussion again.
"Did you get a chance to think much about what we talked about
yesterday?"
"Not really, love. In between staff rotas, stock orders, management
meetings and budgeting conference calls I barely had time to think about
breathing, much less plans for our homelife."
It led to a strange evening, to say the least. Philippa's weekend visit to her
friend seems to have cemented this perfect scenario in her mind in which our
family unit is completed by a daughter at the earliest possible convenience. I
pointed out that we are currently both exhausted by the two offspring we
already have, and that there isn't really available space in this home for
another child, and that we would have to buy a bigger vehicle - again - and
that she is now about to start trying to get clients as a massage practitioner while
also getting used to being back at work, and all manner of other sensible
reasons why not, and she just batted them all back at me like a defensive
cricketer in complete control of the crease.
I feel exhausted.
She is just so good at taking charge of these exchanges and making me feel like
I'm making ridiculous points and generating embarrassing excuses. And yes - I
get the point that I know what it's like to have children the same sex as me,
and she doesn't, and that it might be nice for her to experience that, and I
get the point that it might be good for our sons to have a female sibling so
they can learn what it's like to be around girls and that would lead to them
having better relationships with women in the future (any kind of relationships
I mean, by the way, not just romantic ones) and I get the point that if we did
it sooner rather than later Philippa could still have a career once no.3 is old
enough. I get all that, but still...
Why would we bring another child into this rapidly-dying environment that
already has far too many inhabitants for them all to survive successfully? Why
would we put ourselves through another long spell of pregnancy-related anxiety,
only to have it followed by another long spell of sleeplessness, expense and can-we-keep-this-child-alive
fretting? Why would we add another young 'un into an already complicated mix of
personalities that will undoubtedly cause friction, conflict and awkwardness in
their teenage years and early adulthood? Why?
For the love of God, Philippa, WHY???
RC 30-1-24
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