equal treatment

Moving from a small apartment to a two stories house means a lot of life changes for a small baby. When dad goes up the stairs, our little son becomes very unsettled and wants to go with me to check that I am not leaving. When mum is going out to get a delivery at the parking lot, and me and our baby watch from the window, it is with very worried eyes that he follows her every move. So the joy of being able to freely walk around the big living space as much as he wants is mixed with the worry of not having everyone in his life in an easily controlled space.

While it is difficult to get unpacked in our new home with a baby clinging to every move I make, it is a very precious experience to be so important to my son. Or so I thought when the day started. Tonight however, writing this, even though the feeling is filled with humor, I cannot help but be a little bit jealous of a used cars salesman. The day started with a little trip to the beach and an outing with our son’s grandparents. He loved standing next to the sea, letting the small waves inundate his feet, happily clapping the water surface all while excitedly saying oh oh oh. Meeting his grandparents were also very exciting; he was walking and talking and full of energy like never before. When it was time to go home and we were waving goodbye, he became very sad and almost started to cry – how sweet I was thinking, that my baby is so fond of his grandparents. 

After a power nap for our son and a late lunch for me and my wife, we had a used cars salesman visiting us, talking to us through the veranda door. In our new life we need a car to make life manageable, so through different online explorations my wife found a close by dealership that came to introduce us to some different types of used cars that would be a good fit for our little family. Though we learned a lot, me and my wife were not too impressed by the salesman’s customer relations abilities, so we both felt a bit relieved when we expressed our gratitude for his time and that we needed to think some more before we could decide on what car to get. 

Our son however, did not seem to share our feelings. When we closed the door behind the man, our baby became so so sad, more sad than when me or my wife leave the house. It felt very strange, although a little bit adorable, to see his reaction. Talking to my sister about it however, made me realize that it is quite a relief that our son, who during his short life only knows the pandemic world with all the restrictions it brings with it, who has not met many people at all in his life and is quite unaccustomed to strangers, still manages to meet new people with open unscared eyes – a little less reason to worry for scars the pandemic will cause. Though I would feel a little better if next time he took his parents lead and shared our sigh of relief when we finally get our house to ourselves again.

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