"Oh, honey, you should be at home."
"Back in my day, women didn't leave the house for a month."
"Goodness, you shouldn't be out and about."
Variations on a theme. I've been hearing those things and more for over week now. Apparently, if you have a baby, you're supposed to stay home for weeks on end? Or so I hear.
For what it's worth, I'm REALLY bad at sitting around and doing nothing. Epically bad at it, actually. The second you tell me I have to stay home, I have the very urgent need to go absolutely anywhere. If I am at home, I want to pull weeds, pick up Alexis' six billion pairs of shoes that are scattered all over the house ... anything, really. I'll do anything to not sit still.
Not helping matters is the Drive Thru Eater. She who only has sleep on the brain is erratic with her eating schedule, which creates dilemmas in that whole "supply/demand" thing that is breast feeding. It created an urgent need to run to a store and find a pump when she wasn't yet a week old because SERIOUSLY, CHILD.
And that is how I ended up at Target with a six-day old.
And getting lectured by a stranger about how I shouldn't be there.
Which leads me to wonder, where did the whole "stay home" thing come from? I found oodles and oodles of messages boards (like this one) with people debating the issue. It seems that opinions are all over the place.
(Mine: If you're feeling up to it, go out. It's cool. I will admit, however, that if anyone so much as tries to breathe on my kid, I will turn into a fire-breathing dragon and chase them away. Don't even try to touch her. That creates a whole other kind of monster. Keep your germs to yourselves, peoples.)
What I couldn't find was any sort of explanation as to why. Because babies and germs are a terrible combination? I agree that they are. See also: fire-breathing dragon lady.
Is it because nobody looks their best the first few weeks after having a baby? Which, screw that. And a big HOLLA! to Kate Middleton for not hiding the post-partum belly thing.
WHY, INTERNET, WHY?
