Childcare

There is a special sort of way in which childcare makes a person's brain slowly empty. At first, you try to fight it with intelligent thoughts, little philosophies about how kids learn and grow. After a while, you get acclimated to the wonder- oh, my, what a big jump for such a little person! goodness gracious, she sounds just like a grown-up! (and nevermind the fact that you have to praise these accomplishments profusely when the child shows them off)- and you begin to simply focus on loving the kids. Let them have fun, bond with them, analyze what the dynamics are between you and the child. Is the kid manipulating you? Are you responding adequately? Does he/she really need something? Is he/she sad? What is important to the kid (important for dreaming up punishments)? Eventually this phase fades away too, and you focus on keeping them a) from fighting each other b) from being rude c) from injuring themselves or others d) generally happy and content. This is the next-to-last phase of brainwashing. In the last phase, something in your environment (say, another- comparative- grownup that treats you like a grownup and does NOT talk about children) triggers your memory, and you get back one or two of the thoughts you had in the beginning. You then realize how far your mental processes have fallen, and are discouraged. You'd like to just give the little braggarts back and go away... to a coffee shop and some friends... but no, you can't. You still have to take care of said braggarts, and all friends w/o kids are either miles away or not interested in you anymore because (surprisingly enough- not) all your conversation has become dominated by things children said, did, or are. Thence arises something I've decided to call child-induced misery. not the best name, I know. but what can I expect? I've been watching kids.

I saw a woman today, with a two year old. She looked about as old as a good friend of mine, in her 20's. It shocked me. She made me realize that most mothers are young. Why, just the other day in the park, someone asked me if J (3) was my baby. So a lot of women spend most of their time with children. If the sort of child-induced brainwashing described above is universal (and some other things I've heard lead me to believe that it is) then a lot of women never get the chance to be in mentally challenging situations, which in turn means that they have a smaller chance of maturing and growing emotionally and mentally (unless childcare induces some kind of growth- still not sure about that). I know that for many years women were confined to childcare... so no wonder the Victorians and several other ages thought of women as children. What else did they have the chance to be? I wonder... I wonder... there are lots of other ramifications, but my brain is too fried right now to pursue them.
so goodnight.
enjoy your (and other people's) children. they are precious and beautiful and funny.
but don't let them take over your life.
over 'n out.
k