Karen and Nikki and I talk about what people think and feeling guilty a
lot. When Nikki didn’t have any luck
nursing Jennifer, she was mortified.
Then when Ilsa was born, she felt she had to try again, or everyone
would think she was a quitter. When it
didn’t work out, she kept the nursing gear around and always told her mother
and her sisters that she was just giving the baby a “supplementary
bottle.” In a pinch, she would excuse
herself and take the baby into the bedroom.
Karen says that when her mother comes over, she has to hide
all the organic food, because her mother thinks it’s too expensive and people
who buy it are dupes of the food industry because it really doesn’t make any
difference and the food probably isn’t organic in the first place.
Anyway. It seemed to
be a rite of passage in the Unitarian Church for teenagers to decide they
didn’t want a part of any religion. So
they didn’t go and their parents would talk to the other parents and be
reassured that they would get over it, particularly if the rest of the family
started going out for fancy lunches or to the movies after church and did not
go back home to get them. Of course,
after the prodigal started attending again, they had to keep up with the outings,
which wasn’t a bad thing.
I didn’t rebel until I went to college and became an
Episcopalian. My mother was mortified,
but her friends were very supportive and told her that at least if I was a
Jesus freak, I probably wouldn’t have sex before I was married. Aunt Pooh told me this years later and added
that that was comforting, because if there’s one thing more upsetting than the
idea of your parents having sex, it’s the idea of your children doing it, even
if they’re married. Aunt Pooh said she
likes to think her grandchildren were left at the door in baskets or were
picked up at the hospital.
I think I’m going to do what Kate suggested when Cilla was
turning Catholic. If anyone asks, where
Betsey is, I’ll just say, “Oh, she’s around somewhere.” I think it would be mean to start going out
after church without her, and anyway, Ed likes to sit around on Sunday and
watch sports.
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