He Says
I always thought it would be like “Family Ties”; people jumping up and down in slow-mo with theme music in the background.
We were sitting in our great one-bedroom apartment, on the third floor with no car park and no elevator, each of those things of no consequence to me at the time. The world seemed happy and under control. Theme music stuff!
“We need to talk?” Whoa. OK. That is definitely THE way to get a guy’s attention.
“I’m pregnant.”
Like most of my gender, I’m only capable of doing one thing at a time and my mind was busy racing, so the rest of me went into standby mode.
Even at the time, I knew it was great news but, regardless, my reaction was more of a stunned mullet than any inspirational TV moment. And worse, I was aware that time slipped by at an unfair speed.
A ’that’s awesome’, leaked out, with all the conviction of an eleventh hour election promise.
“So? What happens now?” was probably my clearest and loudest thought, followed very closely by an immediate retail search for folic acid.
She Says
While I was aware of the magnitude of what I was saying, this only took me so far – about 5 seconds. After which I was expecting at least SOMETHING!
Obviously I was aware of a little life starting up within me, but that fact seemed to escape Troy and present itself in more of a financial burden. While he was obviously excited (2 days later), his initial response was dubious (to say the least). Since then I’ve found many women experience the same thing. Trust me, they are thrilled, but they don’t always find the right words to say so.
For more information see Fatherhood or Parenting.
