The report on the trend is title "Woman Who Didn't Want Kids Melts Holding Baby for First Time." And: "The TikTok video from @daniela.brkic shows the friend who swore off kids sobbing with joy...."
Sample response:
If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring. They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that. If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist.We all laugh, but what’s happening here is holy.
— Josh Wood (@J_K_Wood) February 8, 2026
An instinct no ideology can suppress forever. Holding a baby rewires everything: your politics, your priorities, your purpose.
We’ve spent decades teaching women to resist this. Imagine a world where we stopped. pic.twitter.com/Kevz1N7hy4
I hit the Grok button over there and asked: "is the video a genuine response from a real woman or is this a setup with acting?" Grok says it seems genuine, and I'll assume that it is, but I won't assume that woman's reaction represents something inside all women that is pure and uncomplicated. It's hard to take care of a baby, a toddler, a school kid, a teenager, and many other emotions will well up — suddenly or chronically — and mother will need to soldier on, usually without anything close to the emotional high seen in that viral video.
ADDED: I'm reminded of the time I held a little dog: "I love this little dog. I think this is the first time I ever held a dog on my lap." Yes, holding the dog released a distinctive feeling in me, 12 years ago. That might be seen as a reason to immediately acquire a dog (which is much easier to do than to have a baby). The instinct to possess a dog required fulfillment. No, it did not! I see other people's dogs every day. Sometimes I even interact with them. But I am quite happy not to have pre-committed so much of my time to a canine creature.
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109 comments:
It's "hard" to do anything good.
I can't hear anything that leads me to believe that the woman didn't want kids until she held the baby. I assume she's a woman who always liked babies and felt emotional because her friend has a beautiful baby that she loved already.
I never really liked babies as a young woman. After 6 kids, I don't think I really enjoyed the newborn phase until 5. I still don't coo and want to hold other people's babies, but I really loved my own and always loved everything after 3 months on. My 2 year old woke up at 5:30 this morning and we've survived so far. I can't imagine not having him around to make everything better.
“A friend of mine, she cries at night / And she calls me on the phone / Sees babies everywhere she goes / And she wants one of her own"
Bonnie Raitt, “Nick of Time.”
I react very positively to her reaction. I would love to have a son or a daughter, but that ship sailed. It's my biggest regret in life.
My sister on the other hand, loved babies and was the best babysitter. She could never had kids of her own. She is the best aunt to my kids and even witnessed one of my births.
“But turning to them Jesus said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’”
– Luke 23:28-29
If men don't respond like that
…men aren’t wired to respond like that. Their genetic imperative is different from a woman’s. That’s what feminism rejected. It created problems for many people…
“If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring.”— Althouse your Equality meter just can’t give it a rest. On the whole, young men are already much, much more disposed to marriage and family. It’s women who are driving the mania for Feminist Autonomy, the latest progressive utopian dream lie.
But for the sake of argument, how might such a scene rewire a nearby male? Let’s say the young woman with the baby were in some kind of danger. His instinct would be to throw himself into the danger to protect them. It’s a different instinct than hers, but authentic nevertheless.
If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring. They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that. If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist.
So, men should only experience parenthood vicariously through a woman's experience and in service to an idealized version of her, not in a direct connect with the child? Always the interloper?
It's hard to take care of a baby, a toddler, a school kid, a teenager, and many other emotions will well up — suddenly or chronically — and mother will need to soldier on, usually without anything close to the emotional high seen in that viral video.
Obviously true, but isn't it moments like this that parents say make it all worth it? That despite the hardships, they wouldn't change a thing?
In our circle, we call that baby rabies. Very contagious. This has happened several times in our household and part of the reason we have 6 instead of 4 children. This brought about serious emotional breakdown when the Mrs. blogger thought that we were finished at 4.
As a male, I experienced a “rewiring” when I witnessed the birth of our first child. I imagine that’s a common experience.
The great thing about that video is you can actually smell that woman ovulating. Stay close boys!
Maybe she should now take her bike and get some fish for dinner.
Obviously true, but isn't it moments like this that parents say make it all worth it? That despite the hardships, they wouldn't change a thing?
Wouldn't. That is for sure. Would have had more if economics favored us a little more. Older kids would have been less behind the idea. They (mostly) jokingly wished we had stopped after them (the first after 1, the second after 2, the third after 3,) Just so there was more money for them to live the good life at home. :)
Modern society, civilization so called, buries human instincts cultivated for millions of years by natural selection. This girl just discovered that maybe Prozac isn't the best solution.
Carl Jung viewed psychosis not merely as a brain disease, but as a state where the conscious mind is overwhelmed by the personal and collective unconscious, often triggered by severe suppression of natural instincts, emotions, and personal traumas. When instinctual life is neglected or repressed, this latent material becomes autonomous, erupting into consciousness as visions, delusions, or hallucinations.
There is a growing cohort of females who were duped into foregoing family for career and many will regret that decision. There is a huge Venn overlap of these women and all of the radicalized Karens fighting in the streets.
It requires some suspension of disbelief that someone can reach adulthood and have never (not once?) held a baby. How is that even possible?
Male or female I bet everyone there had a smile on their face. It’s a sweet little vignette of everyday, ordinary life.
In the corporate workplace, a woman on maternity leave will come in with her new baby, and all the ladies will gather and play Pass The Baby. The men do not participate. My wife, after having raised three sons to manhood, was still broody.
The instincts we possess are the product of thousands of generations of evolution. Those instincts are out of sync with our culture. This asynchrony won't go away. Ever.
I always thought I never wanted children. My own mother shouldnever had children, she was a horrible mother. But at 30 something clicked. I held babies and felt a emotion unlike any other. When my doctor said it was unlikely, I felt defeated, like I had lost something. I did manage to have 2 children and wanted more.
"Rewiring"--an electricity metaphor, is misplaced. It needs a biochemical metaphor. Oxytocin and other hormones being triggered and released.
It's genuine all right.
I don't know how I came across it, but I read a fascinating blurb about human breast milk last week: https://x.com/argosaki/status/2016990657450299837
"...When a baby nurses, microscopic amounts of saliva flow back into the breast. That saliva carries biological signals about the infant’s immune system. If the baby is getting sick, the mother’s body detects it.
Within hours, the milk changes...." There's a short TED talk linked from 2028 in the blurb.
The culture war campaigns have been harping on the trivialization of biology on a number of different fronts, but it ain't that easy, Magee. It's been a war of ignoramuses declaring their thoughts are holy because it's 'science'. But that 'science' is rife with clues that there is much that remains unknown and unexplained.
(2018, not 2028)
I don’t get why men should react the same. There ARE differences between men and women. Haven’t we been fighting about that for a while now?
Why does every freaking thing in this world need to be equal?
When I was in grad school a friend had her first baby. The INSTANT (and I mean that literally) that my wife held her, a sort of generic "we want to have kids some day" turned into "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE." It was amazing to see.
The only thing comparable I've ever observed was when the nurse handed our daughter to my wife. Again the transformation was overwhelming and instantaneous.
There are things in the world far more powerful than whatever ephemeral ideas we convince ourselves are important--and thank God for that.
When I was in grad school a friend had her first baby. The INSTANT (and I mean that literally) that my wife held her, a sort of generic "we want to have kids some day" turned into "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE." It was amazing to see.
The only thing comparable I've ever observed was when the nurse handed our daughter to my wife. Again the transformation was overwhelming and instantaneous.
There are things in the world far more powerful than whatever ephemeral ideas we convince ourselves are important--and thank God for that.
"“But turning to them Jesus said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’”"
Matthew 24:19 (KJV): "And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!"
Rewiring=Neuroplasticity: Triggered by endogenous chemicals in response to environmental stimulus.
"...If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist...."
Men aren't wired like women. Instead, they traditionally make a long term commitment to work like mules, sometimes in careers they hate, and get crippled mentally and sometimes physically by the dangers they face, defending and providing. And the manly ideal is to do it stoically. It's deeply unfair to validate feminism by trashing masculinity.
"If men don't respond like that"/"…men aren’t wired to respond like that. Their genetic imperative is different from a woman’s. That’s what feminism rejected. It created problems for many people…"
You're misreading the antecedent to "like that." You think you are correcting me but you are agreeing with me. I didn't think that was so hard to read and would appreciate your letting me know that you read carelessly so I wouldn't feel as though I need to rewrite to fend off the error you made, which is super-disconcerting to me. How could you get it so wrong?
It’s a beautiful thing…
"It's hard to take care of a baby, a toddler, a school kid, a teenager, and many other emotions will well up — suddenly or chronically — and mother will need to soldier on, usually without anything close to the emotional high seen in that viral video."
OK, but what is life but a series of emotions?
Feminists seem to think that women should look for fulfillment through means other than being a wife and mother. That's great for women who are supremely talented -- maybe they can be fantastic surgeons or novelists. For the VAST majority of people (women and men), your best option by far for deriving purpose and meaning from life is by raising a child.
As a very young father, my instincts were to provide and protect. The only sustainable way to protect your offspring is to shape them into self reliant people. This is accomplished by channeling them through a myriad of obstacles, easy, difficult and impossible. The primary help to navigate is the Socratic method of asking questions the kid can answer themselves.
Imagine that! Joy over propagation of the species!
Stereotype of women bitching over everything and nothing confirmed. As usual, the damnable stereotypes are true.
I took it to mean that, just as women react to babies by wanting to be a mother, men should react to the woman holding the baby by wanting to protect her and make babies with her. I think that's valid and I think many men would have that response, even if not shown so publicly.
"Matthew 24:19 (KJV): 'And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!'"
Being temple-adjacent in the days of Titus certainly sucked!
It was nice to see her genuine emotions pour out like that. It was nice to hear her express her desire, perhaps even strong enough to say yearning, to have skin on skin contact with the baby. Maybe this went viral because it had that feeling of authenticity many crave. It probably delivers better on that mark than purchasing vintage workwear.
The statement wasn’t that men should react the same. The statement was that men should react positively toward the woman. Is there a guy out there who isn’t responding positively toward her? And at the same time responding positively toward the baby? That scene, if you saw it in real life, wouldn’t it put a smile on your face or a tear in your eye or both?
(“No! I am a manly man and I can not smile at a woman holding a baby.)
"Is there a guy out there who isn’t responding positively toward her?"
I think some men prefer to see a woman who seems to be all about lavishing attention on him and serving his needs not the needs of this squalling puny upstart.
I think some men prefer a more girlish woman — young and fresh and there for him, not rising to the immense responsibilities of motherhood.
I think some men are wary of stepping up to provide a full family income and having to put up with a woman seeking to shed the burdens of income-production while she ensconces herself at home with this pretty toy she's concocted out of nothing and now claims is the meaning of life.
If I'm being honest, Eva, it's hard not to focus on the cleavage.
It is a bit of a Prisoner's Dilemma situation for women. Getting pregnant and having a baby necessarily makes women more vulnerable. If the women do not have a man in their lives to that will consistently work to protect and provide for the women and their children in some ways they are worse off. So it can be a rational strategy to avoid motherhood. But as in all Prisoner's Dilemma situations that reach an equilibrium point like that, this isn't getting the best outcome just avoiding the worst. Though I suspect longer term single mothers wind up feeling more fulfilled having had children, even if they are unaided, than perpetual bachelorettes who are childless.
Althouse is describing Beta Males. Like all of the creeps attracted to Epstein's Honeypot brimming with helplessly weak young women and girls.
Real men seek out strength intelligence health perseverance in a woman so that the offspring will be anti fragile monsters exploding with the excitement of living a life of action and adventure.
"I think some men prefer to see a woman who seems to be all about lavishing attention on him and serving his needs not the needs of this squalling puny upstart."
I think very few men have the same appetite as Saturn, though I'm sure some exist. The big caveat being this applies to their own children and not some other man's. I think most men have far less patience for other men's children receiving attention from their woman. I think the domestic abuse stats bear this out.
@Ms Althouse, it wasn't careless reading, but I don't pretend to have perfect comprehension in every case, either. It seemed you were saying it was 'no wonder' that some women respond negatively a certain way to men's reactions, but it wasn't clear to me that you were saying those reactions were being misunderstood.
I saw this with a couple I knew back before the wife and I were married. The wife was a nurse, and she used to go on and on about how she wanted no children. None. Zero. Absolutely not.
But she was a devout Catholic and would neither use birth control nor abort, and the inevitable happened — the loveliest, liveliest little baby girl. Scary to realize that that baby girl is in her fifties now. And of course now it was all about how wonderful motherhood was, and how amazing it was to be a mother.
All I can say is we had two and wished we had three. Married 40 years last year.
Some men prefer . . .
I didn’t think the statement required a lifetime commitment then and there but whether men should (I would say would - Howard would say wood) react positively to her in that moment.
How could you get it so wrong?
…if you’re argument is the woman was not experiencing a rewiring then why not write something in opposition to that rather than introduce an if/then? Be clear. I’ve been here for years and recognize your persistent frustration at being misread but I cannot assuage your disconcertion. You are sometimes obtuse. If it happens too often for you perhaps blaming the reader is not the best remedy?
Let me just add we don’t know if this was a life changing moment for the woman holding the baby. She must have asked to hold the little. So her thoughts were already on a path. Whether she completes the journey is also not known.
Aggie: "microscopic amounts of saliva flow back into the breast. That saliva carries biological signals about the infant’s immune system. If the baby is getting sick, the mother’s body detects it. Within hours, the milk changes"
I see a promising cure for prostate cancer....CC, JSM
They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that.
It's a bit more compliated these days. The baby is innocent and the person being rewired is the woman and her feelings about the innocent being. The woman is not innocent. She has been making decisions and choosing her beliefs -- likely for decades. She has a carefully-curated identity she is not likely to abandon.
Are we to presume she has not only been rewired regarding babies, but also marriage, men, parenting, and other key subjects as well?
Are we to assume her rewiring regarding motherhood also entails rearranging her longtime friend group? Or will the people with the most influence in her life until now continue to exert their influence on her?
Without these additional upgrades, a man supporting her will likely end up divorced and paying for his child that he occasionally gets to see.
The hardest job you will ever love. #BLM
"..."I think some men prefer to see a woman who seems to be all about lavishing attention on him and serving his needs not the needs of this squalling puny upstart."..."
OK sure, but how many? I hold that it is sometimes the case that the distal ends of the spectrum are presented as the norm. But I can only take context from my own upbringing, which was not at all like that, and the present day witness of my own kids raising their children. My S.I.L. routinely devotes at least as much, if not more, time and attention to changing diapers, performing housework and outdoor chores, taking an active interest in their development, giving them outings, cooking the meals, so forth, as my daughter. They are two white-collar career holders, and achievers. My own childhood 60 years ago wasn't too different, except my parents' careers were not in senior management until later in life, near retirement. What I see of young people today is that there is more load sharing because work-from-home has become a 'thing' that has made more home time available to both.
If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring. They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that. If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist.
So you're saying that "single motherhood is a failure"? That "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a pickle" was a heinous lie?
That is such a real moment. I love the honesty in her bursting feelings.
I married into kids, and then grandkids. My life's greatest regret is not taking the time to focus on starting my own family.
I think there will be- or already are- a lot more of women (and men) like that woman shown in the video. In today's society, we are marrying less, marrying later, and having fewer or no kids at all.
If ever there was a primary innate purpose of any species, it is to perpetuate the species. There is no other reason for being. Yes, we can have other purposes. We can create great things, do great things, or bad things, or just mediocre things. But in the end, if there isn't a future generation to see it, hear it, experience it, read it, read about it, what's the point?
She is showing a completely honest and human reaction that goes against everything she thought she was. In fact, she was the other.
"So you're saying that 'single motherhood is a failure'?"
Hominid single motherhood is always a failure, both in nature as well as its artificial doppelganger called 'civilization'.
If your mother never has children, neither will you.
People are shocked to find that some human traits are hardwired in men and women. Even after 50 years of the propaganda machine, and its Parti bosses, relentless push to change the natural order.
It is very entertaining to see the leftist meltdown over this video. 50 years of a concerted effort to change us, 50 years working for that mythical 'perfect society'.
Ann Althouse said...
"Is there a guy out there who isn’t responding positively toward her?"
I think some men prefer to see a woman who seems to be all about lavishing attention on him and serving his needs not the needs of this squalling puny upstart.
Here's a thought for you:
Women, don't have sex with that guy. Or any of the other bad guys that Althouse listed.
Instead of focusing on how their are bad men out there (which there are, just like there are bad women out there), why not focus on what the individual woman can do to make her life better?
What is so wrong, so foreign, with people taking individual responsibility for their actions and their choices?
Women: it is highly likely that teh most fulfilling thing you can do with your life is have and raise great kids
Women: To make this happen, you are going to have to focus on guys who would make good fathers for your kids.
What's that last bolded part mean? It means that "he's rich" does not equal "he will be a good father for your kids", because the odds are high he's not going to marry you, because you're not rich. You're just a toy he will play with.
Don't be that toy
@tcrosse: Harry Speaks
The emotional response from the mother is real. I am skeptical of the back story. This cannot be the first time she held the baby. Outside? My bride held our babies shortly after birth in a bed.
"You are sometimes obtuse. If it happens too often for you perhaps blaming the reader is not the best remedy?"
It's at a particular reading level. I could go higher or lower, but it's where I choose to write. If it's not the level you like and you don't want to adjust, you can pick any of the billions of things that are available to you to read instead.
I'm writing for the intrinsic pleasure to me and no one is in a position to tell me they want me to do something else. Not interested. This isn't a job.
"I think some men prefer to see a woman who seems to be all about lavishing attention on him and serving his needs not the needs of this squalling puny upstart.
I think some men prefer a more girlish woman — young and fresh and there for him, not rising to the immense responsibilities of motherhood.
I think some men are wary of stepping up to provide a full family income and having to put up with a woman seeking to shed the burdens of income-production while she ensconces herself at home with this pretty toy she's concocted out of nothing and now claims is the meaning of life."
Wow, I've never ever felt any of these things and neither have any of my many buddies. These are all weirdly adolescent and self-absorbed sentiments. There are lots of guys who are not only full-on adult, but many have perfectly normal instincts for family loyalty and protection even as teens.
’I think some men prefer to see a woman who seems to be all about lavishing attention on him and serving his needs not the needs of this squalling puny upstart.’
Males with such a preference aren’t called men.
"I want to take my top off and have skin-to-skin contact."
Well, now you're getting somewhere with the men in the room!
“I'm reminded of the time I held a little dog: "I love this little dog.”
Whether it’s the welfare of the baby or the little dog, I think it’s enhanced by these sort of reactions. It’s good for moms and owners of dogs to hear really positive reactions.
"Grok says it seems genuine, and I'll assume that it is, but I won't assume that woman's reaction represents something inside all women that is pure and uncomplicated."
Certainly not. Only Grok is pure and uncomplicated.
“… but I won't assume that woman's reaction represents something inside all women that is pure and uncomplicated.“ Given the behavior of many women today it is much easier to assume someting
(The previous got away from me.) “… but I won't assume that woman's reaction represents something inside all women that is pure and uncomplicated.“ Given the behavior of many women today it is much easier to assume something inside of them that is impure and simple-minded while wishing it were not so.
Holding a baby is magic. People forget that they too once were babies.
I'll take a guess the male rewiring is putting the protective gene in full control.
Imagine channeling all that extra emotional energy for the benefit of a little person. Women have extra feels for a reason.
"If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring. They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that. If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist."
I think proper pairing is Maternal Instinct VS Reproductive Instinct. Men are already properly wired. Do you know why the human species hasn't gone extinct? It's not because of women, it's that creepy persistent guy who keeps repeating "how about now?
"see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that"
Only happened once and I was already head over heels in love. Her sister had a baby, brought it over to see us for first time. Placed the baby in my girl's arms and my world was sundered. Everything around her blurred out, a ray of light swept across hair, angels may have done a harmony check. I may have even seen flowers rain behind her. I'm not trying to be snarky, it was a moment. Aphrodite may not cheat but she certainly doesn't play fair.
If we pretend someone cares - no, I didn't win the girl. Probably for the best. She was the love of my life, but a love so powerful it was debilitating. There were days of pure bliss too but married? I wouldn't have been able to tell her No, she would have walked all over me, lost all respect, and left me. Decent odds I would have lost the will to live.
Instead I married a woman with a pure heart. 25 years. With a love not so unhealthy. In fact _I_ am the one who is fussed over. It's nice to be on the other side of that for a change
I remember when we had our babies I though the first year might be boring, but was shocked; I could not wait to get home from work to see them. Now it's the same with my baby grandchildren. Rewiring does happen for many of us, but maybe not everyone. I thought the video was beautiful and powerful.
I think some men are wary of stepping up to provide a full family income and having to put up with a woman seeking to shed the burdens of income-production while she ensconces herself at home with this pretty toy she's concocted out of nothing and now claims is the meaning of life.
To summarize Greg the class traitor...
Women... Choose wisely.
My addition. A lot more men are that way because so much milk is given away freely. The cows were taught that the secret to fulfillment was to give away the milk. Don't be surprised if the consumers have been conditioned to prefer free milk.
I gotta say, it's nice to see the conversation moving on to discussions of biological wiring, when it's been stuck for quite a few years on gender-related plumbing problems.
I'm writing for the intrinsic pleasure to me and no one is in a position to tell me they want me to do something else. Not interested.
...that sounds great. I think you're lying because if you were you wouldn't rant about being misunderstood and attacking your readers. You should stop that...
13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her labour is in vain without fear;
@Humperdink: it’s not the mom who’s holding the baby. The mother gave her baby to another woman to hold (a woman who supposedly - until this point - wasn’t sure she wanted children.
Holding a baby retires one’s politics?
Ridiculous. I’ve given birth and held my own four children and I’ve held my five precious grandchildren, my politics continue to strongly lean left. My liberal female friends, family and acquaintances also gave birth and held children and hold their grandchildren without becoming conservatives.
“Rewires”, not retires, but retires works too. Autocorrect doesn’t like the word rewires, keeps changing it to retires, lol.
What do you think would happen if some Somali woman ran up and dumped a Somali brat in her lap?
I’m enjoying Fen’s stories, a bit dramatic, almost unbelievable, but enjoyable reading. He’s better at the Fen persona than the Former Law Clerk guy.
“The emotional response from the mother is real. I am skeptical of the back story. This cannot be the first time she held the baby. Outside? My bride held our babies shortly after birth in a bed.”
It’s the new way of giving birth, an hour later you’re expected to be up and dressed and at the gym.
People in 2025 seem to have forgotten that women need to have kids for society to continue. If we keep going on with 1.0 or 1.5 kids per woman, then the USA will collapse.
So, propaganda or not, something must be done.
Perhaps Hillary had the answer: "It takes a village to raise an child". Of course, wealthy Hillary from a wealthy family, only had one kid. Guess she was too busy baking cookies to have another.
For another perspective:
You ever drop a baby?
they need a substitute. So they try to mother all adults.
The whole conversation is trying to use an obvious anecdotal experience to make a large generality about women, men, and culture that I think is a stretch. However,
If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring.
It worked on me when I first observed it.
A common male rewiring in response to a scene like that is to prepare sword and shield to protect mother and child at all costs. Not everyone gets it, but I'd imagine a lot of my fellow commenters will understand. Too bad our society seems to want to destroy that response and pass it off to others.
Althouse seems to have known a lot of really shitty men.
Life on a college campus? The "everybody's an asshole" syndrome?
Beats me.
“ If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring.”
FWIW, my wiring remains intact.
O common, you guys regale us with stories of shitty women all the time but you don’t know any shitty men? Really?
All the women are shits and all the men are saints?
Remind me - are there more men in jails or more women?
Let me answer my own question: 90% men 10% women.
The rewiring for men--well, for fathers, I don't know about anybody else--is absolutely real, it is just not instantaneous like it is for mothers.
I can remember sitting and holding my daughter in the first week after she was born and worrying that something was wrong with me because, as much as I loved her, it just wasn't the obvious uncontrolled, overwhelming love I could see that my wife felt.
Then, about a week later, it was.
@Eva Marie, Ken Rex McElroy was a pretti shitty dude. There are lots like him, including some female versions....but the female versions don't get much airtime.
The conception and circle of life is a mutual and bonding compassion of conscious consensus.
chickelit said...
"As a male, I experienced a “rewiring” when I witnessed the birth of our first child. I imagine that’s a common experience."
Yep. Nature kicks us into ,"Dad" mode. We never go back to the other way.
Humans not only evolved from apes, they (we) are apes—“Great Apes.”
Responding to an up-thread posting, many people think the taxonomic classification “Hominid” (etymologically roughly “human-like”) means, more precisely: “Humans and their now-extinct relatives and ancestors since the split from chimpanzees (our closest relation among the other apes).”
Not so; the proper term for that is “Hominin.”
Hominid, contrariwise, as a taxonomic term incorporates all the “Great Apes”—which, beyond just people, includes orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees (as well as all their extinct relations since the split from the lesser apes).
Eva Marie: “ are there more men in jails or more women?
Let me answer my own question: 90% men 10% women.”
Could just mean y’all are better at crime. :). CC, JSM
"If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist."
So, once again, it's men at fault?
I'm shocked, shocked...
Men and women generally express themselves in disparate and complementary ways.
For some she's a baby, for others a "burden" of evidence. For some it's a fetus or a technical term-of-art socially distanced through transhumane ethical edicts. For others it's a bundle of profitable parts fit to be cannibalized and redistributed. It may also be a carbon source of pollution and a first-order forcing of [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] climate change. What is your article of faith... axiom?
I think some men are wary of stepping up to provide a full family income and ending up losing their home and children when the woman decides she's not happy anymore.
Motherhood must have been bitter cup for the author of this blog. Now accuse me of not understanding nuance or the higher modalities.
This last 18 months, we have seen the arrival of my first grandchild, a girl, and her first great grandchild, a boy. A couple weeks ago, we had a joint birthday for her two oldest grandsons. She went to the bathroom, and got lost on the way back. Another baby. But, of course, as cute as her great grandson. She can’t walk by a baby without cooing to it.
Oldest of five boys, all spread out, so I had plenty of chances to babysit. It was a job, that was easier than mowing lawns. But no special spark, etc. The kids, and even older babies, were just a job. And, then, my daughter was born. And now her daughter. And your own are special.
Instinct goes well beyond holding a baby. My toddler daughter became potty trained instantly upon being granted the right to wear cute pink cotton panties rather than Pampers pullups. And my son, well, what his instincts led him to, led to me always knocking at his door and waiting for him to respond that I could enter.
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