Journeys With a Pregnant Lady

Boy or Girl, I Was Screwed from Conception

I was thinking yesterday about how happy I am we are having a girl. There are a couple of reasons.

I've been worried that if we had a boy, because of how short both Kim and I are, he would be short to. I know what some of you are saying. Him you aren't short, but 5’ 6 1/2'' is pretty short to me. I know it isn't really that short, but believe me, it felt short growing up. Now, couple my height with Kim's 5' 5" frame and you might have yourself one short kid.

Besides, It is more socially expectable for a girl to be short. She isn't going to have problems dating boys or feel awkward in social situations if she is short (I'll be addressing her not dating boys in future posts). Not to mention it won't feel that weird for me if our daughter turns out to be taller than me.

We went to the Westmont Bagel near us yesterday. Behind Kim in another booth were six, freshman in college age, guys. It seemed that they were just done playing baseball or something. They were laughing and talking al the while being rough with each other. You Know, the typical banter and actions that you would expect from a bunch of guys. They seemed like nice upstanding young men; raised well by their parents (I thought this because they pretty much cleaned up after themselves). They were big, way bigger than me. At that moment I couldn't picture myself as anything else but a father to a daughter.
I tried to visualize one of the boys as my son. I couldn't see it. Why? I don't know. I would do all the things you would think a father would do with his son. So Why no connection? Maybe it is because I'm mentally preparing for a daughter.

But then... it something happened...

Moments later a young girl came in with what I guess was her mother. My mind almost exploded. She must have only been 13 or 14. The girl was wearing the shortest and tightest cotton jersey shorts ever; coupled with an equally too tight cotton tank. If that wasn't enough her stomach was showing slightly. These clothes were so ill-fitting and so tight that she must have dressed in the dark and put on her 7 year-old sister's clothes by accident.

The clothes squeezing her body so tight must have pumped a pheromone into the air. You could see the guys in the other booth almost tilting back their heads sniffing the air before they even saw her. Not only was I mad at the mother for allowing her daughter to dress like that, but I was mad at the college guys for making their funny comments about her.

Wait... No... Son-of-a-Bitch.
I'm having a daughter.

I will never and I mean never (and I say this now, knowing hard it must be to enforce) let our daughter wear clothes like that. I became once again aware that boys are going to look at our daughter like that.

Then I thought.

How can I be a father to a daughter?

Posted by him at July 24, 2005 08:41 AM