Babies everywhere

Alternate Title: Anne Geddes is a menace to society

Last night I went to dinner with a good friend from grad school who was unfortunate enough to spend this very frigid week working in her Boston office. We used to live blocks away from each other in San Francisco, yet I rarely saw her - especially after she birthed a baby.

Catching up over delicious fried foods and burgers, we basically spent 30 minutes talking about work and 2 hours talking about babies, parenting techniques, her knocked-up nanny, the controversial Ms. Chua, the priviledges of being born into the upper-middle class and "16 and Pregnant". Now, I don't have any kids, so I'm no expert on any of these topics, but since when did my whole life become about babies?

I guess I'm just at that stage of life where all my friends are starting families and it's become the topic du jour. Fortunately, I have enough friends with babies so I understand the concept of the Pack N Play, the Hooter Hider and the complications associated with selecting child care options. I've heard about how trying it can be to "sleep train" an infant and how weekends are scheduled around nap times. And after you see a few friends completely frazzled by sleepless nights and worrying about newly mobile toddlers, all the glamour associated with newborns seriously loses its luster.

So, Anne Geddes, with your posters of "cute" babies in various flower or animal costumes, maybe you're doing the world a disservice by perpetuating an image of peaceful, clean, sleeping angels. But fortunately for me, I've always found these images to be so creepy and so disturbing that I was never bamboozled by your horrific photos.