The Housewife Chronicles

W (no relation to Georgie) is one of my best friends. Married young, she is having baby "issues," i.e. her husband is as excited about the prospect as you or I about cleaning the toilet bowl.

I am also having issues with my own hubby, who views the prospect of procreating with a mixture of wonder and horror: the same expression one has while watching a volcanic eruption--"how beautiful from a distance, but goddamn it I'm so glad I'm nowhere near that." That type of thing.

So W's husband asked her to go off the pill, which was promising. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the baby forum: he stopped sleeping with her. Now you could blame that on stress, anxiety, the normal ebb and flow of married sex-life or, a silent protest against going through with baby-making deed. Well, that and the fact that he's gained 30 pounds to his already rotund frame throughout the course of their marriage. I believe the term is "mobility issues."

Why is this? I thought it was typically men who insisted on kids, with little understanding for the sacrifices (professional and personal) that most women make when carrying a baby for 40 weeks (that's TEN months, not nine).

It's official: men are the new women.

This far away from buying a pack and lighting up,

June