Seeznak

Babytalk, PCtalk

Babytalk is the sort of magazine that one reads while sitting in a pediatrician’s office waiting for the two-week-old appointment of one’s two-week-old. That is to say, it is a magazine distractedly and flippantly read by thousands of average people every day. Or: That is to say, it is a potential outlet for winds-of-the-day indoctrination for thousands of average people every day. So a minor note should be made for the August 2008 issue’s surprisingly honest article (at least for these peecey days) by Anita Sethi, Ph.D, concerning gender differences in babies:

As a good postfeminist-era mom, I certainly didn’t push my son toward trucks and my daughter toward tutus. If anything, I went out of my way to avoid giving them gender-stereotyped toys, offering glittery finger paint to my son and trains to my daughter. But it didn’t matter: My son turned his doll’s crib into a race car and my daughter was obsessed with shoes.

It turns out, as Dr. Sethi discovered, that there appears to be a surprising amount of scientific evidence pointing to what may seem fairly obvious to many of us: boys and girls are different.

Boys like action, Dr. Sethi says, and lots of it. They are more adept at tracking motion than girls, hit the major motor skills before girls, would rather look at a mobile than a human face, and express fear less than their feminine counterparts. Girls, on the other hand, learn to mimic far faster than the little guys, manipulate small objects sooner, are more attuned to the sound of the human voice and may actually prefer it to other sounds, are more likely to establish eye contact (especially with other women!) and talk sooner than boys of the same developmental stages.

Man’s condition without Woman, according to God Himself in Genesis 2:18, was an eternally resounding “Not Good.” Man needed an Other, a Compliment, the missing Bone and Flesh in order to be complete, and thus, Woman was created. As Christians, we celebrate the brilliance of God’s plan in bringing opposites together to make a whole (Genesis 2:24), and we celebrate God’s glory displayed in males along with the incredible reality that males have no glory apart from females (I Corinthians 11:7).

The article in Babytalk touched the surface of this, briefly exulting in the abilities and inclinations (what we Christians often call ‘gifts’) unique to each sex, and I commend Dr. Sethi for it. But the editors of Babytalk felt the need to ensure that no one mistook this little article for a cloud, and added their own silver lining in an additional box that (thankfully) is only seen in the printed version, titled, “It’s Not All Pink and Blue”:

Before you run out and buy a Tonka for your son, recognize that this research is about the average baby, not your little guy or gal. Here are some key points to keep in mind about the wide range of normal behaviors:

All is well thus far, and most of their subsequent points aren’t too bad (but neither are they too great; do our TV’s not preach well enough about how individual everybody is?). The first point, however, flatly contradicts the preceding article while offering no grounds for its assumption:

A baby is herself first, and a girl second. Your child’s individuality plays a much more influential role than sex. So encourage all of your baby’s interests, even if they seem stereotyped or at odds with what’s “normal.”

It’s a funny brand of logic- the article consistently points to the differences between male and female, yet the editors feel the need to immediately play the trump card ensuring that every child is defined by their “individuality” (”preference”? “orientation”? “choice”?) rather than how they have been made. Every child has the potential to incline towards gender confusion, and the editors have made sure that the reader’s mind is assured that this is what is truly normal.

Normal was identified in the article: boys behave in certain ways, girls behave in certain differing ways. Yet the point is made to ensure a new kind of normalcy, apart from any law or code or morals: the parent must encourage all their child’s interests, while refraining from altering that child’s behavior to fit any stereotyped mould.

If this is what many-a-parent who waits in a pediatrician’s office nonchalantly soaks in, it is a frightening prospect for the future of this generation.

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him. - Proverbs 22:15

On Being A Mommy

Was I foolish to ask God to place such a precious little person into my care? To allow me to so poorly show His love to one completely loved by Him? Is He big enough to make me soft and patient and loving? To make me into a mother that can raise this wee little lass to know and love Him even more than I do?
The happy and scared and trembling feeling of holding the new little baby makes me pray for God’s hand to be on me so I can love and care for her as I should.
The midnight feedings and fussy evenings make me contemplate God’s patience with us when we so often try it. I want to show as much of that patience as possible to our kids so they never have to feel that God isn’t patient with them because I am not patient with them.
It is a wonderful and challenging and exciting thing to try to show Jesus to Micaiah.
It gets hard sometimes to not be able to calm her crying or satisfy her longings…whatever they may be…and then she makes a cute face or calms down in my arms and I melt.
Other times I just stare at her face because she is crafted and designed by our Father and I could watch her for hours…The little faces she makes and the way she studies things. (Mostly walls and lamps. )
I cannot begin to describe exactly how it feels to be in this new adventure, but I know that I am different because she is here and that I love her, and that I think I see more of how Jesus sees us because of how I see her.