Doing the splits

By Published On: July 30th, 2013

Every three months or so, new faces appear in the […]

Every three months or so, new faces appear in the P&N office, eager to learn about the magazine industry, and let’s face it, the adorable world of babies. I’m the new face for these three months, and if you knew me, you’d probably be wondering why.
I’ve never been one to say, “I can’t wait to have kids.” For me, it’s always been more like, “It feels like what when you’re in labor?” and “You got how many minutes of sleep last night?” It’s not that I never want kids. I’ve just never been in any hurry to experience the miracle of life I’ve heard more accurately described as doing the splits on a crate of dynamite. Now that I’ve briefly described my concerns about pregnancy and newborns, I thought I’d share how exactly I ended up interning at P&N.
Just last year, I watched my sister-in-law give birth to the most handsome kid I’ve ever seen. I mean this literally because I was in the delivery room the whole time. It was kind of by default really that I was there for the actual birth. I just happened to be in the room when she started pushing, and since I had spent the entire night watching her contract in pain, she figured I had earned the right to watch him make his appearance. All I can say is, watching someone give birth is probably the most effective form of birth control. And OK, maybe he wasn’t so handsome when he first came out. He was covered in God-knows-what, and his head was shaped distinctly like a traffic cone. Everyone else in the room was crying tears of joy, and I was in the corner asking, “His head isn’t going to stay like that, right?”
Then I saw my sister-in-law, only moments after his birth, willing to do it all over again for that beautiful baby boy. And I don’t take doing it all over again lightly because, up until he actually showed up, that was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and I was only cheering from the sidelines. But it all made sense in that one moment: Being a parent isn’t always fun and easy, but it’s always worth it.
0730SDMorganWilson
My nephew is probably my favorite person in the entire world and watching him grow gives meaning to the experiences we write about here. In addition to attending super cool photo shoots and knowing what the best baby products are, working here allows me to learn about the pros and cons of being a parent, and, now that I can understand it a little more, hopefully I’ll be able to experience it for myself one day.