Podcast 123 - The young couple I saw last week simply used two loops of cloth slung around parental neck and arms, holding the infant securely close to the parental warmth.
Oh, I love that you end up talking about kindness. We can all use a little kindness at points in our life. Thank you, Garrison, for kindly giving me this story to roll around in my head. I feel you are a most kind person.
I admire your writing, spelling and grammatical skills. So few people are competent in those areas anymore. When I encounter an illiterate post on social media, I block the person.
"I’m okay on the printed page anyway — aren’t I?" GK, you have now wandered into my sandbox, and I can't resist. You are more than okay. Your writing is illuminated by your personality. This is style, and very rare. A page of James Patterson looks exactly like a page of Dan Brown. A page of Liane Moriarty looks exactly like a page of Colleen Hoover. And so on. Stylists have a chance of being remembered, long after others are forgotten.
Wonder of wonders that any of us came of age at all without all that is currently available and ‘necessary’ to raise a small human to fruition!
As I listened, I kept reminiscing about my own childhood-large family gatherings, I was always sitting at the kids table. Not an IPhone in sight! We actually talked and laughed!
All of us came of age before the internet-I remember when we got our first fax machine. I thought we had arrived!
What lies ahead for the upcoming generations to navigate remains to be seen. Parenting by app may become the norm, but nothing can replace a human touch and an act of kindness. Nothing!
"I lay on a blanket on the floor on my back. surrounded by giant adults staring down at me, feeling dread, ashamed of my lack of toileting skills." I had to laugh out loud at this line, G.K. Whether or not it's true, it's so YOU!
Your post on young parents puts me in mind of "The Wonder Chair" that my young bride and I bought for a mere $500 back forty years ago when $500 was a month's salary for me. We'd gone to the Baby Place or whatever the hell the place in the mall was called to get a $50 collapsible baby stroller for our newborn baby boy and walked out the proud owners of this all-in-one Cadillac of baby strollers that was built so sturdy a runaway milk truck would bounce off of it, but wait, WAIT, there's more, because it could also unlatch from the oversized wheels and attach to a sturdy table top to serve as a high chair, and wait, WAIT, there's still more because after we've walked our baby, fed him, we could then unlatch the chair from the sturdy table and lock it to the front of the table with our baby still seated therein and that kid wasn't crawling nowhere on his own until we let him loose. That way Mom and Dad could get some much-needed time alone to work on making a new baby brother or sister. We NEVER DID use it for that, I hasten to add, but we could have done so, had we wanted to, and our now forty-three-year-old son would have been none the wiser nor damaged. Our then young pastor who always preached against the crass materialistic culture in which we were living was going on and on about how some idiots had once tried to sell him and his wife a grossly overpriced all in one baby stroller when he visited us with his wife and son until we wheeled our son out of the baby's room strapped into his "Wonder Chair" so that we could all go for a walk around the park, their son in a cloth collapsable number with tiny wheels like we'd originally gone to get that ill-fated day and our son riding high up above their deprived tyke in a baby stroller the size of a baby elephant! To say the least, I was ashamed that day of my lack of sales resistance.
❤️ My daughter is transitioning to kind caretaker from oppositional defiance. In many ways it’s wonderful. On the other hand it reminds me how time is accelerating. Thank you.
In 1970, grocery shopping and at the checkout, with my 3 month old daughter in a baby carrier strapped to my chest, an irate woman not quite silently muttered “child abuse.” I guess it was ok, because that daughter calls daily, runs errands for me, visits me and tactfully makes suggestions to help me continue to safely live independently.
Oh, I love that you end up talking about kindness. We can all use a little kindness at points in our life. Thank you, Garrison, for kindly giving me this story to roll around in my head. I feel you are a most kind person.
I admire your writing, spelling and grammatical skills. So few people are competent in those areas anymore. When I encounter an illiterate post on social media, I block the person.
"I’m okay on the printed page anyway — aren’t I?" GK, you have now wandered into my sandbox, and I can't resist. You are more than okay. Your writing is illuminated by your personality. This is style, and very rare. A page of James Patterson looks exactly like a page of Dan Brown. A page of Liane Moriarty looks exactly like a page of Colleen Hoover. And so on. Stylists have a chance of being remembered, long after others are forgotten.
I am OK with okay. Either one works.
Hi David Miller. My name is David Miller also. Lots of great guys we David Millers.
Please keep writing. It’s so beautiful.
Wonder of wonders that any of us came of age at all without all that is currently available and ‘necessary’ to raise a small human to fruition!
As I listened, I kept reminiscing about my own childhood-large family gatherings, I was always sitting at the kids table. Not an IPhone in sight! We actually talked and laughed!
All of us came of age before the internet-I remember when we got our first fax machine. I thought we had arrived!
What lies ahead for the upcoming generations to navigate remains to be seen. Parenting by app may become the norm, but nothing can replace a human touch and an act of kindness. Nothing!
If only young parents knew how little influence they really had on their children. Some, but not as much as we hope for.
"I lay on a blanket on the floor on my back. surrounded by giant adults staring down at me, feeling dread, ashamed of my lack of toileting skills." I had to laugh out loud at this line, G.K. Whether or not it's true, it's so YOU!
Your post on young parents puts me in mind of "The Wonder Chair" that my young bride and I bought for a mere $500 back forty years ago when $500 was a month's salary for me. We'd gone to the Baby Place or whatever the hell the place in the mall was called to get a $50 collapsible baby stroller for our newborn baby boy and walked out the proud owners of this all-in-one Cadillac of baby strollers that was built so sturdy a runaway milk truck would bounce off of it, but wait, WAIT, there's more, because it could also unlatch from the oversized wheels and attach to a sturdy table top to serve as a high chair, and wait, WAIT, there's still more because after we've walked our baby, fed him, we could then unlatch the chair from the sturdy table and lock it to the front of the table with our baby still seated therein and that kid wasn't crawling nowhere on his own until we let him loose. That way Mom and Dad could get some much-needed time alone to work on making a new baby brother or sister. We NEVER DID use it for that, I hasten to add, but we could have done so, had we wanted to, and our now forty-three-year-old son would have been none the wiser nor damaged. Our then young pastor who always preached against the crass materialistic culture in which we were living was going on and on about how some idiots had once tried to sell him and his wife a grossly overpriced all in one baby stroller when he visited us with his wife and son until we wheeled our son out of the baby's room strapped into his "Wonder Chair" so that we could all go for a walk around the park, their son in a cloth collapsable number with tiny wheels like we'd originally gone to get that ill-fated day and our son riding high up above their deprived tyke in a baby stroller the size of a baby elephant! To say the least, I was ashamed that day of my lack of sales resistance.
Is there a full version of the piano introduction and finale of your columns?
❤️ My daughter is transitioning to kind caretaker from oppositional defiance. In many ways it’s wonderful. On the other hand it reminds me how time is accelerating. Thank you.
Love this! Thank you, Garrison, for a warm fuzzy start to my day.
So beautifully described. I did have a sling for my last baby, but only because it was the fashion and easier. So I can't claim any parental wisdom!
It's ok Garrison, the EMS are nearly here and we'll have you in the ER very soon.
We all need more kindness❤️
OMG, Keillor, you're killing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 1970, grocery shopping and at the checkout, with my 3 month old daughter in a baby carrier strapped to my chest, an irate woman not quite silently muttered “child abuse.” I guess it was ok, because that daughter calls daily, runs errands for me, visits me and tactfully makes suggestions to help me continue to safely live independently.