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khaoz
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27 Sep 2014, 11:01 pm

What is the big deal with babies? Why do so many people tote babies around as if they are Olympic gold medals? For probably 99% or so of people, making and delivering a baby is as common and simple as peeing in the morning. Why make it such a ritual as to parade around with a kid phishing for attention and compliments? Why is there so much pride, strutting and chest thumping associated with . Every place I have ever worked I have had to endue the inevitable parade of co-workers bringing newborn babies into work and going from person to person with these babies and acting as if everyone has a moral or civic obligation and responsibility to spend 5 minutes ohhing and ahhing the "accomplishment" The process never stops as the kids grow either. Never ending cycles of producing opportunities for everyone to display approval and admiration..........



Kiprobalhato
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28 Sep 2014, 12:39 am

even though i still get likened to babies, i think these same thoughts sometimes. i am glad i do not remember that stage of my life, nothing more than a bald, screaming digestive tract, wallowing in my own filth.

within 1-2 hours of birth, a foal is able to stand up and walk. i know how different equines and us humans are, but the difference is still amazing.

oh well, sometimes they are rather, cute, when they're giggling and not howling.


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jk1
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28 Sep 2014, 1:00 am

I share that sentiment. If only the parents could realize that their Olympic gold medal is nothing but just one of the millions of "special" little ones.



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28 Sep 2014, 6:42 am

People bring their newborns? Huh, I thought bringing pics were more common. Well, anyway, they do so because they?re proud of them and love them and think their babies are the greatest. Their lives have just seriously shifted and they wish to show what they feel is close to a miracle. And other people get this and wish to bond/preserve good ties with them, (and some naturally gravitate to them anyway) and so they give the response they expect and hope for.

I remember one classmate coming to school with his little son once. He wasn?t parading him, but I found myself ?having? to do some oohing and aahing when I passed him just the same. It?s just what you do. It came naturally.

Regardless of what you might think of babies, remember that you have to go along to get along. If you want a good working relationship with your colleagues, it?s smart to act like you like their babies even if you don?t. Your colleague will remember it well if you don?t, and it will isolate you. Sometimes being part of a social species means that you have to do some pretending to fit in.


And khaoz, delivering a baby is definitely harder than peeing in the morning! I have not given birth, but I do know labor is hard and painful.


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khaoz
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28 Sep 2014, 11:46 am

I have worked with women who brought one week old babies into the work environment to seek approval, in dirty factories, in hospitals, in the middle of winter when I would not even come outside were it not for work. People have no common sense anymore



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28 Sep 2014, 11:54 am

I am not sure why we do it. I think it's because reproducing is part of mother nature and having babies has always been a big deal because they grow up and have their own and it keeps us humans existing. So it's wired in our brains to think babies are adorable and congratulating people for contributing to mother nature. I am still not sure why we like to show off our babies, it's something parents love to do and it's a normal feeling we get to want to do it. I am not someone to carry a camera around so I never have pictures and it never occurs to me to show them on my Nintendo 3DS and maybe because I am not a sociable person and no one has asked to see them. My work, people work all over the floors so it's hard to locate them to show off my kid and you need a pass to go on the floors and can't go on certain floors because it's a federal building but I can go on any floor because I have a badge for it. I prefer to have people ask to see my babies anyway than shove it in their face because I know not everyone wants to see your child. Some parents will ask you first before they show you their kids because they are aware not everyone is interested in children and wants to see theirs.

But ever since having my own, I have found other babies not so cute as mine. I always think mine look better. But they're all cute.


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SignOfLazarus
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28 Sep 2014, 12:18 pm

Much of it is not people just being jackasses.

A lot of this behavior is biologically driven.
Also, what you are likely only registering as pride while showing off trophies is so often just as much or more love and a desire to share that love. It's a pride that mixes in with that, but a very different pride than an olympic medal.

I don't have kids but I would bet raising them is infinitely harder than getting a medal.

As someone who very likely will never have kids, I'm going to say that giving birth is not as simple nor common as going to the bathroom.

ETA- Clearly I had more to say.


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modernmax
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28 Sep 2014, 5:25 pm

"Making and delivering a baby is as common and simple as peeing in the morning."

All of your arguments are now invalid.


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Kiprobalhato
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28 Sep 2014, 5:44 pm

modernmax wrote:
"Making and delivering a baby is as common and simple as peeing in the morning."

All of your arguments are now invalid.

common? depends where.


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khaoz
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28 Sep 2014, 8:16 pm

Kiprobalhato wrote:
modernmax wrote:
"Making and delivering a baby is as common and simple as peeing in the morning."

All of your arguments are now invalid.

common? depends where.


Everywhere for the overwhelming majority of human beings. I know there are exceptions, and I recognize the exceptions, but for the most part, having babies is not a task worthy of worldwide celebration, other than perhaps for those women who see no worth and value to their own existence other than that of pumping out babies. I know a lot of women like that.



Janissy
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29 Sep 2014, 8:37 am

khaoz wrote:
Everywhere for the overwhelming majority of human beings. I know there are exceptions, and I recognize the exceptions, but for the most part, having babies is not a task worthy of worldwide celebration, other than perhaps for those women who see no worth and value to their own existence other than that of pumping out babies. I know a lot of women like that.


It is not the task of having babies that is being celebrated, it is the baby himself. The baby is being celebrated. You have doubtless objectively noted that no one specific baby is more special than any other baby. However, if parents believed that their baby was interchangeable with any other baby, the human race would not have lasted long. Special attachment to one's own baby is something we share with all mammals and possibly all vertebrates (and maybe some invertebrates too). What is unique to primates (notice I didn't just say "humans") is sharing that joy with others of the group.

http://www.parentingscience.com/capuchin-monkey.html

Quote:
After a capuchin monkey infant is born, group members compete for a ?turn? with the baby, inspecting and handling it whenever the mother permits. - See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/capuchi ... GqaQ4.dpuf


Playing "let's all play with the baby" is so primal it predates humans.



khaoz
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29 Sep 2014, 9:48 am

Janissy wrote:
khaoz wrote:
Everywhere for the overwhelming majority of human beings. I know there are exceptions, and I recognize the exceptions, but for the most part, having babies is not a task worthy of worldwide celebration, other than perhaps for those women who see no worth and value to their own existence other than that of pumping out babies. I know a lot of women like that.


It is not the task of having babies that is being celebrated, it is the baby himself. The baby is being celebrated. You have doubtless objectively noted that no one specific baby is more special than any other baby. However, if parents believed that their baby was interchangeable with any other baby, the human race would not have lasted long. Special attachment to one's own baby is something we share with all mammals and possibly all vertebrates (and maybe some invertebrates too). What is unique to primates (notice I didn't just say "humans") is sharing that joy with others of the group.

http://www.parentingscience.com/capuchin-monkey.html

Quote:
After a capuchin monkey infant is born, group members compete for a ?turn? with the baby, inspecting and handling it whenever the mother permits. - See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/capuchi ... GqaQ4.dpuf


Playing "let's all play with the baby" is so primal it predates humans.


Actually, if babies were in a sense "interchangeable", that is, if human beings loved and valued every life the way a mother loves and values her own child, the world would be far more advanced, because no child or human being is more special or more important than any other person. It is precisely that illusion that "my" child is more valued, special and important than another child or human being which brings about conflict, animosity, jealousy and wars.



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29 Sep 2014, 10:01 am

I wouldn't exactly call having a baby as simple as peeing, as childbirth is usually a teensy bit more painful and difficult, and you have to "hold it" for nine months. :lol: Many people think creating a new human life is the just greatest thing a person can ever accomplish, much like ending a human life is usually considered the worst thing. But humans are capable of creating so many other things - art, music, games, technology, cures for disease - that require things like skill and talent and education that yes, the whole baby thing is just "a bit" overrated. And when I pick up or play with one of my cats I don't normally have to worry about how well they can hold their food. :P



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30 Sep 2014, 5:12 pm

khaoz wrote:
For probably 99% or so of people, making and delivering a baby is as common and simple as peeing in the morning.


ROFLMAO You've never given birth. Either that or yowzers you must have a rough time peeing.

I have six children. Three were unmedicated homebirths, including my largest, who was 9 pounds 3 ounces with "sticky shoulders" - which means his shoulders were *almost* too large to come out. Of the other three, two were supposed to be homebirths, but there were complications that involved ambulances, laughing gas and lots of screaming. I had rough pregnancies, and now I need major abdominal surgery (I go to the hospital tomorrow and will be there a week) because my insides are a mess. Yea, I'm damn proud of my children because I've worked really hard to give them life. :D

There is only ONE perfect baby in the world, and every mother has it. (Right now, The Most Perfect Baby in the World, all of four months old, is sitting in her bouncy seat smiling at me, but my husband says I've said that, and fallen head over heels hopelessly in love with every one of my babies. And I suspect I'll do it with my grandbabies some day.)

And with that said ... I have to admit that I've never liked other people's children, not at all.


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