Mama Bear

I watched numerous friends and lots of my siblings have children before me. (Since I was pretty much ancient when I had Peyton). As I've watched so many people become parents, I've noticed something about all of them: They turn into mama bears INSTANTLY when their children are being discussed in any manner. Just the comment "hmmm, I thought babies sat up earlier than that", could make a new mom grow claws and nearly rip someone's head off in defense of their baby sitting up later than other babies. I thought they were crazy!

I mean, we all know every baby is different and it really isn't a competition to see whose baby sat up first, or got teeth first, or rolled over first. But it seemed that as soon as you were a mom it turned into a competition. I didn't think it would happen to me, I was so naive. The first time someone said, "oh she's not even pulling herself up into crawling position yet?" I felt the change start to happen deep within. I felt the claws start to take over my fingers and I swear I temporarily grew fangs (and since I hadn't shaved in a while, I could've been mistaken for an actual bear). I really thought I might punch this person!

I had to talk myself down, unclench my fists and nicely explain that she was a preemie so all of her milestones would be reached a couple of months later than the average baby. Besides, my baby is perfect and will do everything perfectly at the perfect time! Doesn't everyone know that about Peyton?? Looking back on this incident cracks me up! I realize how irrational it was to feel that way, but I didn't see it coming so I couldn't prevent the anger from boiling up to the surface! Now that I'm aware of the possibility of becoming a mama bear at any moment, I can proceed more carefully.

I would like to take this moment to apologize to any new mom that I might have offended in the past. It was not intentional and I'm sorry I didn't understand the "mama bear effect" until having a cub of my own.