Last Sunday, I mentioned to K___ that I really ought to pop in and see my folks. Then I had a bright idea. 'Why,' I suggested, 'don't we pick out a few of the baby clothes and take them round for my mum to coo over?' K___ looked at me. 'Like the pink ones, you mean?' '...oh for fuck's sake!'
I think generally, people of our parent's generation do tend to be less inclined to want to know the baby's sex. I suppose it's probably because back in the stone age when they were having kids, you got told you were pregnant and then had to wait months and months until it was born before you knew what flavour you were getting. Having said that, I revealed the sex during an IRC session with some mates a while back and one or two of them were a bit surprised that we'd elected to find out and they're all much of the same age as we are.
Having to keep the baby's sex to ourselves is really irritating. It requires a lot of conscious effort for something that really isn't - or shouldn't be - that big a deal. I've already mentioned many of the reasons here. What is particularly galling is that at one point my dad remarked on how my brothers know the sex and he'd offer us a fiver if we'd tell him. 'But you're the one's who don't want us to tell you!' we cried in exasperated unison. 'We'll tell you for free!' My dad thought about this and then said, 'No, it's all right.'
I don't know whether he does want to know and it's just because my mother had decided she'd rather remain in the dark that he has to as well. To be fair, if this is the situation, he really does have to remain in the dark because he'd definitely blurt it out.
What's really galling is the fact that every time Ma had cause to mention the sex, she'd say something like, 'blah blah blah when she... (or he) is born blah blah blah etc'. There's this pause after 'she' every single time. We came out wondering if she knew and was trying to pretend to us that she didn't. Hello? We know all ready...
The thing is, K___ is pretty certain that the first time she went round and saw them after we'd found out the sex, she'd done much the same thing, so perhaps my mum just picked up on that but doesn't want us to say anything that confirms or denies it. 'It'd be like opening a Christmas present early,' she says. But by that logic perhaps we should have neglected to tell her whether the baby was missing any vital bits of anatomy or not? Or perhaps we should have refused to show her the scan photos that she loves looking at so much?
It's all very silly, if you ask me.
No comments:
Post a Comment