Kaleigh and I have officially been parents for about a month and have begun to experience a plethora of new things. We are learning new skills and our lives are changing. Everything we do now revolves around Olive, which is as it should be. She is the most important thing in the world to us, the trump card for everything that we do. That being said our lives outside of Echo Base (our home…see here) are built around Olive’s moods. This means that whenever we head outside the walls of our house for any extended period of time we hold our breath that Olive will be sleeping for the duration of the trip and not cause us to prematurely abort our journey. And I am happy to say that Olive is a trooper and we have only had a few times where she became fussy enough for us to leave. Most of our trips have been to the grocery store and/or a restaurant to eat. And throughout all of these trips I have noticed a phenomenon I like to call the “Baby Effect”.
The Baby Effect can be described as the magnetic attraction that a newborn baby has on people, especially women in all situations and all circumstances. The Baby Effect creates friends from perfect strangers. It makes you and your baby the center of attention in any public setting and destroys any notion of personal space that you may have had. This happens wherever we go. Olive is an instant star and Kaleigh and I, the proud parents, become heros to countless strangers. It continues to amaze me how grumpy old ladies at the grocery store, who on any other day without Olive would give me a scowl and walk by, are now walking from the other side of the store to say hello and meet Olive. Then they get super close, touch Olive and us, ask lots of personal questions about the pregnancy, delivery, your sleeping habits and without fail proceed to bend your ear with countless tidbits of advice (A topic for another post). I chuckle every time. This isn’t limited to women either. There have been many times when men, usually grandpas (at least they look like grandpas) approach us to meet Olive. Everyone is friendly and genuinely interested in our little family. It’s great, Olive can’t even talk and she is already bringing people together. What a girl I have.
In my opinion The Baby Effect could easily solve lots of the worlds problems. If you have a grumpy neighbor, have a baby and casually walk by holding him/her, you will be the best of friends. If your having issues at work with coworkers or your boss, have a baby. Instantly you will be the most popular guy/gal around and you’ll probably get a raise. If you have gotten into trouble with the mob and have a hit out for your life, have a baby and maybe buy a puppy for good measure, no one can resist that combination!
But in all seriousness the Baby Effect is a powerful force. One that brings people together and makes normally unfriendly people friendly. Advice is shared, stories are swapped and there is laughter. There is actual interaction between humans, something that is becoming exceedingly rare these days seen only in movies. Seeing the Baby Effect in action is an amazing thing to witness. All you need to do is have a baby, or borrow one.
We Are Parents 