BMJ  2007;335:940 (3 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39384.481308.59

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The baby shambles

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The baby monitors looked mournfully back at me from the bottom of the wheelie bin as I slammed the lid. Then I experienced a series of flashbacks: the crackle of a baby's cry; the whiff of stale vomit on my clothes; pacing the floor at 3 am; the breastfeeding propaganda, and the malign medical insensitivity of the health visitors' "support"—a tick list questionnaire on depression, domestic abuse, and "concerns" about seemingly everything (my wife took to hiding from them in her subsequent pregnancies). Thus we were sucked into the parental collective—mere drones with no free thought or will. Smoking might be dangerous, but becoming a parent seemed to be lethal.

In the past, having children involved two teenagers falling in love, having sex, then being forced to marry at the age of 20. Life was straightforward, with clearly defined roles and a script. The children tumbled out, and parents just . . . [Full text of this article]

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