Life Without Baby

filling the silence in the motherhood discussion

Comments

  2. I recently seen a ‘my sausage dog ate your stick family’ sign which made me howl with laughter. Must try and find one for my little pugalier pooch!

  4. Funny timing. I had not seen a ‘baby on board’ yellow warning sign in a car for years and I saw one yesterday.

    Before I dealt with infertility and still thought there might be a chance, I thought they were more of an advertisement (bragging opportunity) than a warning sign. Like, seriously, who is going to drive differently just because you have a baby in the car with you? We are all just going to straighten up finally after years of driving crazy and get our act together and focus on our driving now that you have a baby in the car. Not very realistic. Hence, my conviction they are more of a bragging right.

    Now that I have dealt with infertility, I am convinced they are part of the mommy club brigade (bragging on steroids) along with the little stick family stickers with each of the family names and even the pet’s names.

    If that floats your boat, great, but don’t expect anyone to drive differently because of a sign in your car.

  5. I love that. You’ve made me think, and realise that I rarely see the Baby on Board or stick family signs these days. I hope we’ve passed “peak baby” in terms of these signs!

  6. I have one of these on my car! Periodically I switch it out with a baby-on-board sign that I adulterated with yellow electrical tape and a black Sharpie to read “I’M on Board.” What’s interesting is that sometimes a man will stop me in a parking lot, point to the sign in my car’s back window, and exclaim, “I love it!” I’ve never had a woman comment on it; it’s always a guy.

  7. I don’t own a car because I don’t need to chauffeur a bunch of brats to hockey training and school. I go everywhere by bicycle because I rent a lovely place on the city’s edge, no need to buy a house “out in the green” (Where another 1000 people have built their house in the suburb and it’s not green anymore) because “isn’t it better for the kids”. I use car sharing and live in a country with amazing public transport, which I can afford, because I don’t have to spend my money on children.
    The main problem is I might be run over by a car when walking to the tramway stop or cycling. Where can I put my sticker for that please?

  8. I’ve recently noticed “Drive like your kids live here signs” popping up around my suburban neighborhood. For the most part, I don’t think twice about them…but there’s one around the corner from my parents’ home that has disrespect written all over it.

    In the summer months, this family routinely moves their sporting nets and playground equipment into the middle of the street beyond their driveway. And they post the “drive like your kids…” signs. I’m not making this up! I wish I had a photo of it. If it happens again this summer, I’m taking a photo and sending it to city hall.

    What lesson is this teaching children? That city property can be taken over for personal use, and oh, by the way, that this property is designated for traveling along, and a resident is obstructing its intended purpose? It is the most obnoxious thing.

    An ironic side note. My father is friendly with the father/owner of this property. My mom died last Sept and Matt (the father) attended mom’s funeral, which was thoughtful. A few weeks after, Matt decided to sleuth out my cell number, call me in the middle of of a work day and question me about my father’s driving (dad has early dementia), about a scratch he noticed on his car, etc. The call caught me off guard in such a big way. At first I thought it was caring and neighborly that he inquire how dad is doing…but the more he questioned me, well…the most polite thing I could think of at the moment to say was, “I’m sure you would agree, Matt, that suggesting to Mike (my dad) that he not drive anymore would be a really hard sell. Would you like to have that discussion with him right now?” Silence.

    I wish that I would have had the presence of mind to say, “What difference does it make to you? You barricade the street off in front of your home 8 months out of the year with your kids’ play things – no one can drive thru anyway!”

    Next time 😉

  9. Lately I’ve been seeing “Princess on Board” & “Princess in Training on Board” signs. :p Sometimes I fear for humanity…!