You totally need one

One of the joys of finding out you’re going to be a parent is the almost immediate rush to sell you stuff that you obviously need to buy for yourself, your wife, your unborn (and then born) baby. The very first thing my wife was sent home with was a little binder with instructions, advice, and a place to put your fetal images. And one of the very first things it tells me is that I need to buy a body pillow. The <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002E7DIQ?ie=UTF8&tag=brooklyndad-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002E7DIQ”>Leachco Back ‘N Belly</a><img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=brooklyndad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0002E7DIQ&#8221; width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” /> pillow. Here’s what it looks like in the ad:

Doesn’t she look happy in her giant white disembodied space? Now, let me be fair – my partner seems to love this pillow. She’s digging the whole curve around your body thing, and really, it’s a totally comfortable pillow. For $60. On the other hand, here’s what it looks like in our actual bed:

In practice, the thing takes up 2/3 of the bed. These are the sacrificing I’m making for my baby mama. I’m sure it will be the only one.

Fatherhood blogs

While I am sure there are a ton of good ones (and I’m just starting to look), I was trying to decide on a URL – brooklyndad.com is taken, and while I don’t mind using WordPress’ site itself, I’m used to having more control by hosting it myself. On the other hand, I ran across NYCFather.com’s home screen:

Um, ok. Domain parking and all, but still, WTF? I’m either sticking with this or going with brooklynfather.com

Throat clearing

Every blog has to start someplace, and this one starts here. After living in Manhattan for 6 years, we moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn. Part of the plan was to, well, raise a family, buy a place, settle into a community. We gave notice on our current apartment, started looking at (incredibly expensive) houses in Brooklyn, and figured everything would just work out.

But our attempt to buy a house fell through, and our attempts to get pregnant weren’t working. Suddenly I found myself with a 50 minute commute rather than a 20 minute one, moving from a place 3 blocks from our closest friends to a place where I knew not a single person, without kids in a neighborhood known for its Stroller Mafia. Yay! We expected to buy a place, have a kid, change neighborhoods, settle down. Instead we rented a place, failed to get pregnant even with medical intervention, and had landed in the most baby-centric neighborhood in greater New York City.

Then, while we were dithering about what to do, my wife got pregnant after all (retroactively, it makes you feel a little like thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical insurance coverage were spent, but I don’t really believe that). And so just like that, we are going to go from being the second-most-hated group (DINKS, dual-income, no kids) to the most-hated group (Park Slope parents).

The thing is, I’m not much of a douchebag, and I’m not really a Park Slope Hater. I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m normal, since I am, after all, an over-educated left-leaning sociology professor, with an MBA wife. But still, I think I’m what passes for relatively normal around these parts.

And the question is, can we raise a normal kid without getting caught up in crazy, high-stakes parenting, or getting exiled from the neighborhood?