A Sunny day in Brighton

So...what is the job description?

Sometimes I find myself wondering...what exactly are you supposed to do with a young baby?

It's much like any other job I've done before: I start to feel I should be doing more somehow, or at least better ;) I wish I could be a fly on the wall of other mums' homes, and see what they really get up to.

But when things are flowing well, I don't wonder about this so much. I just get on with it, and J seems happy, and I'm happy. I don't think people wondered about this stuff before the advent of parenting theories and books. I get the impression babies and children were just part of the bigger picture of life in the family and community.

Does your baby never cry?

Today I was on the seafront with G and J; it was a lovely sunny day, definitely the prelude to spring... and when I was left alone with J he had a huge crying fit. I swear, when he cries it is the loudest thing! Other mums have said I just imagine it is, because it sounds so loud to me, but today I really think it was, because the people at the next table were staring. I felt like saying, 'Did your baby never cry?' (they had an empty buggy with them). I knew he was just tired and had a runny nose which was preventing him from feeding properly, but there seems to be this vibe of, if a baby cries, the mum has to do something about it - fix it, stop it. I feel really on the spot when that happens, and its something that I can't fix. Oh well. All of this is great practice for gradually starting to give less of a damn what anyone else thinks!

I had a really productive morning, today - did a good page of my novel (oh yes, it's very slow...but its something!), had an epiphany about what to change in my novel while washing the dishes (love it when that happens), and did some networking and profiling on the web.

Gotta go now - J needs attention!