Hold My Baby!

I don't know if it's just me or not, but I really do like when people give me a break from holding my kids.  I think it's so funny thinking back to when I never had kids and I was always so shy to ask to hold other people's babies.  If they said I couldn't, I felt so embarrassed that I ever asked.  In reality, the baby probably needed to eat right away or something.

I was in church a few weeks ago, and a few girls I went to high school with were there.  After the service they asked if they could hold Murphy.  I willingly passed him off and dealt with all the stuff we brought and needed to clean up.  They kept asking me if I wanted him back yet.

I realised something.  When you don't have babies but love to hold them, you feel like everyone must feel like that.  Especially the mother.  You think that if you think the baby is so cute and fun to cuddle, that if the mother loves the baby even more, she would want to do it all the time.  In reality, that's not completely true.

On the other hand as the tired mother trying to multi-task all the time with a baby in one arm, and having the other arm to do all the things I need to do, I generally assume that when people are holding my baby it is to help me out, and that they are doing a favour.  I feel guilty making them hold him for too long, so I am always asking if they want to give him back so they can do whatever they were planning on with the ease of using baby-less arms.  When I offer to take him back, they more than likely assume that I miss cuddling him.  It just goes back and forth.

As I was eating lunch after church, I just wished I had a big sign to hold up that said "Hold My Baby!" because I was trying to eat, and he is in the reaching for everything stage.  I was sure that there were nice little church ladies who would love to cuddle a baby, I just never wanted to ask it of anyone.  People have offered before and I just asked "Are you sure?" because I know it's difficult to multi-task.

I think I just need to realise that if I think people shouldn't assume that I want to hold my baby every second of every day (by the way, only people who have never had kids think that way), I shouldn't go assuming that people don't want to eat with a baby on their lap.  Some people might consider that the highlight of their day!

So if you ever offer to hold someone's baby and get turned down, you probably shouldn't take it personally.  I'm sure most of the time, the mother of that baby would love to just relax for a couple minutes.  And If you're a mom, relax.  People will tell you when they need to leave or when their arms are falling asleep.  Enjoy knowing that a lot of people enjoy holding babies.  It's also nice to see how cute your own baby is from far away sometimes :)