Friday, August 10, 2007

Can you miss someone you never knew?

I have been meaning to blog, for weeks, about my neighbors (now former neighbors). They had a little girl last March, and the mom decided to quit her job to stay home. We ran into them out on walks a few times, and always chatted, but never got together to do anything or made an effort to get to know each other. So we weren't really good friends, and given that, it wasn't a big deal when they moved about 6 weeks ago without us knowing that they were moving. However, after they moved, I found myself missing this woman! Really odd, seeing as I never did anything with her and never really talked much to her! I realized this week though that I, without realizing it, really felt connected to her because when I was home during the day, I could look across the street and see her car outside and know she was home too with her child! Now, I'm the only person on my street that's home during the day - everyone else works - and it's kind of lonely.

And a random question - at what age would you let your newborn be around an older child (toddler age)? We have friends that recently had a new baby and want us to come see their child, but don't want us to bring J. For some reason, I feel like this is an odd request - it's not winter, he's not in daycare, he's not sick, and I'm not going to let him touch the baby or get near it or anything. I'm sure I was like this after J was born, but it seems so silly now to be so overprotective! So help me understand their perspective a little - I've forgotten already what it's like to be a new parent!

*I'm editing this to add that the baby is almost a month old, and HAS been around other kids - they have nieces and nephews that have all been around. I know family is different, but it makes it seem a little more personal that they don't want J there. The other issue is that they don't live close to us and it would require a fairly significant amount of time to go see them. And I don't really want to pay a babysitter for this.

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2 Comments:

  • I think I probably felt like that after Lila was born. They told me not to have her around kids...so I didn't.

    By Blogger Chastity, at August 10, 2007 at 7:30 PM  

  • Maybe just one of you could go see the baby? I know a lot of new parents are very overprotective. I remember friends with a toddler coming to see us after Jenna was born, and I didn't think twice about it. But they didn't let the toddler touch her or anything. And I did have friends who didn't bring their kid around because they didn't want to "spread germs." I do think it's an odd request, but I guess if you're a new, paranoid parent, you're allowed to make weird rules. But they need to understand that if you can't bring J, then it's harder for you to go.

    By Blogger Karen, at August 14, 2007 at 7:19 AM  

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