Comments on: minutiae from an at-home dad in manhattan

minutiae from an at-home dad in manhattan

zsazsa — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:16:29 -0800

Citypop's a stay-at-home dad in New York City. While his medical resident wife grinds out 80 hour weeks, he narrates the hurdles (botched circumcision, apartment fire, roach invasions) of raising a boy in the strange universe of Manhattan's Upper East Side.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:27:41 -0800

My life is not terribly interesting. But it's not so uninteresting that I want to read about the mundanities of some other person's life. He thinks that his kid and his parenting experiences are so remarkable that we want to read about them. Must be a Baby Boomer to be that self-absorbed.

By: chicobangs

chicobangs — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:35:31 -0800

Sometimes another boring life is more interesting than yours, even if only because it's not yours. What's the line? It won't be better but I'd settle for different. Them's blogs for you. (I probably won't visit him regularly, but I'd understand people who might.)

By: konolia

konolia — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:39:24 -0800

It's always cool to pop into someone else's life for a bit. It isn't like he is charging you for it, after all.

By: the fire you left me

the fire you left me — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:51:26 -0800

Stay-at-home Dad. . .tsk.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:07:01 -0800

This is an interestin social commentary on the feminization of the male. Or something. Not that it's a bad thing but this guy seems like a fruit. And I say that in the nicest way possible: He had been half asleep, when a four-inch water bug crawled up the wall of his room. Eew, eew, EEW! Hist constant obsessing of his son is cute, but really, really motherly: File one more entry in the Almost Killed Him folder. It's interesting as probably most dad's either internalize such things are just are too John Wayne to care. I don't really know what to say or what judgement to pass, as I haven't gone through but a few entries yet. But to anyone else does this seem as "off" behavior?

By: crunchburger

crunchburger — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:19:19 -0800

Invasion of the baby blogs...this is the future of weblogging. They've already got defective yeti....

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:52:27 -0800

I think it's great that he's good with being a stay at home dad. My husband and I decided that one of us would stay home with our son until he was old enough to start school. We'd both been laid off while I was pregnant, and after he was born, my husband got the highest paying offer, so off to work he went. I'm sure he'd rather stay home...and to be honest, after a year and a half, I'm ready to get back to the salt mines...so I'm in quest of a job that pays equal or more to his salary, and we'll switch. As to babyblogs, every parent I know who has a blog posts stuff about their kids. It's a huge part of our lives, and most of the time, the blogs aren't written for anonymous viewers...they're written as though they were baby books, and they're written for friends and family who happen to think that hip, cool, naked, white, ray charles baby, is funny. (You probably had to be there...) My point is, it's easy to be condescending when you still party all night and sleep till noon...but for those of us on the 5 am teething train, sometimes getting it out in a journal, even one that happens to be accessible to the world, is what keeps us sane.

By: headspace

headspace — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 13:28:59 -0800

This is an interestin social commentary on the feminization of the male. Or something. Not that it's a bad thing but this guy seems like a fruit. Trust me, when there's a nasty-ass bug crawling near your baby, every primal revulsion node in your brain goes off at once. I'm not a "girly" girl (I kept tarantulas as a teenager,) but the day I saw an ant crawling on my newborn's face turned me into a shrieking freak until I got it off and slaughtered it for daring to invade my baby's space. Rationally? It's just an ant. They're not even particularly dirty, this was a suburb-variety, non-biting ant (the kind that I let her play with in the yard, now that she's a toddler,) but the response is an irrational need to protect the baby, not a rational evaluation of the situation.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 13:48:55 -0800

My point is, it's easy to be condescending when you still party all night and sleep till noon. Or even if you go to sleep after the ballgame and get up at 6 AM to go to work. Everyone seems to disagree with me and insist that reading about someone else's parenting is worthwhile. I guess I just won't understand until I become a parent and then become convinced that I'm a cross between God, Superman and Michelangelo for having functioning testes.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 14:13:30 -0800

Everyone seems to disagree with me and insist that reading about someone else's parenting is worthwhile. Na, I'm not disagreeing with you. I can't imagine why anyone who doesn't actually know the boy would want to read about his exploits. But when I write stuff about the boy, I'm not doing it for anyone but me...if nobody reads it, I don't care. That's my point, is that most babyblogs aren't written to entertain...they're written as journals to track progress, just like the baby books your mom had. (Trust me, your mom has one...all moms have them...it's weird.) The difference between baby books and babyblogs is that blogs allow other parents to connect...and compare and talk about things that none of our non-breeder friends want to hear about. Yeah, it's not Proust...but it's not like it's obligatory for you to read it either. :)

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 14:24:25 -0800

but it's not like it's obligatory for you to read it either. I can't argue with that! (Unless the Red Brigade kidnapped my mom and forced me to as a condition of her return, or something.)

By: tracicle

tracicle — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 15:22:16 -0800

I won't just read any boring parenting story, but I think this guy writes well and actually has some cool ideas for parents to teach their toddler -- some of which I might try myself. So you're not a parent or you don't like kids (or both), find a blog that talks about how great it is not to be a parent. Oh wait, there are like ten thousand of those, idiot blogs about how wasted so-and-so got last night. I write about what my son does so I don't forget, years from now, how cute or frustrating or frightening he was. I write it for myself. Just like this guy probably does. So pretty much what dejah said, really.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:03:31 -0800

find a blog that talks about how great it is not to be a parent ... idiot blogs about how wasted so-and-so got last night. Because if I'm not a parent, I'm an irresponsible 24-hour party person? I assure you that's not the case. I've done a lot of extra work over the years because of co-workers who felt the same smug sense of entitlement that you do, tracicle. Literally billions of people have raised children. Stop thinking that you're doing anything that a mouse, blue jay or wildebeest can't do equally well. Your child is a source of joy to you and perhaps your parents. Everyone else is secretly pretty indifferent, just like you are to other people's kids.

By: konolia

konolia — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:13:05 -0800

Mayor Curley, think of it as shoptalk. My husband's a realtor, and when they get together it's all about what's happening with interest rates. Booooorrrrriinnnggg. When I homeschooled, I was always interested to read books and articles by other homeschoolers about their typical days. I gleaned lots of tips, plus to me it was interesting simply because I was doing the same thing. Trust me, when you have a child, you will be totally fascinated by the most mundane stuff. You don't believe me, go read dooce.com. (I defy you to find HER blog boring. And these days, it's all about the Leta.)

By: tracicle

tracicle — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 15:57:32 -0800

I didn't mean to imply that non-parents are all irresponsible party-people (maybe it's more that sometimes I wish I was :). I do think that what parents do is more than a mouse, blue jay or wildebeest can. Can a baby blue jay grow up to change the world? Much as it bugs me when people say, "Oh, you don't have to read it, you know," that's what it comes down to. Right?

By: Feisty

Feisty — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 18:45:56 -0800

This dad should hook up with Jeremy's dad.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 18:48:39 -0800

I guess I just won't understand until I become a parent and then become convinced that I'm a cross between God, Superman and Michelangelo for having functioning testes. Nice!