Work It Out

I've never been the type to share a lot of my personal life with co-workers.  If I can be 100% honest, it probably stems from the fact that I've never been interested to hear about co-workers' kids.  This probably has caused me to project my own feelings on others.  If I don't want to hear about how your kid passed his spelling test, you must not want to hear about my kid rolling over for the first time.

Yet ever since I returned to work after the girls were born, I have fielded non-stop questions about them and how they are doing.

Maybe it stems more from the whole freak show, car accident aspect of twins.  "I have to check in with him because twins are so weird, and he must have some horror stories."  They must want to know how I'm not getting any sleep and how difficult it's been.  They just want to laugh at my assumed misfortune.  My pain is their pleasure.  Like child schadenfreude.  It makes them feel better if I'm feeling worse.

But the thing is I don't ever complain about my girls (not yet at least), so that can't be their motivation to keep asking me about them.

So what is it that makes them care so much?

I've realized it's a combination of things.  People love babies.  They just love them.  They especially love two babies.  Like twice as much even.  Many of them had their own babies at one time or another, so they are also reliving the glory days of child rearing.  Because let's be honest, babies are awesome.  Everything is so adorable and new with babies, and people love hearing about that stuff.  The other reason may be a little self-centered, but I have also come to the realization that the people I work with actually care about me.  Why not, right?  I'm not a awful person (at least I don't think I am).  I just never really thought about how we spend so much time with the people we work with and we develop strong relationships with them.  I've actually spent more time with my coworkers than my children which makes me sad, but I get it.

Everyone in the office was excited to meet Grace and Ana when they finally visited for the first time.  People crowd around me when I pull out any pictures of them.  They've even started asking when the girls would be by to visit again.  It has moved me and made me start asking others about their kids and families.  They care so much that it actually has made me care.  And I like that.