freddy’s blog spot

Steve and I went to our weekly prenatal class last night.  It was interesting in some ways, but we both came out a bit annoyed.  What could be annoying about a harmless parenting class.  Well…the language and the pretty assumptions.  I’ll have to do a bit of explaining on that, but let me tell you, it spawned a lot of reflections on professionals and brain washing.

Here’s what I mean. Not easy to explain but I’ll try.

The woman who’s the host ( I can never remember her name ) is very nice.  She’s polite friendly, professional and clearly dedicated. That’s not the problem, the problem is that she is also, what I’ve decided to call the product of our post new age society meet’s social intervention / new professionals. In other words, she talks fancy,  but what she says is quite debatable but not confronted because it’s so cute.

Ex: How to interact with your unborn baby.

• First you must great your baby with some gentle words, the way you would with anyone else before starting a conversation.
• Gently touch you belly to start the interaction. Tip of the fingers to announce your presence and palm of the hand to establish a warm contact.
• Play games with baby, gently tap on one side to call babies attention to that direction.  Baby is likely to respond with a gentle kick or push where you tapped.
• If interrupted or if you must end the contact, make sure to inform baby that the meeting is over. ( yes she used the term meeting)
• Gently inform baby with words or a special touch that you have designed for that purpose. The phone just rang baby love, we’re being interrupted, I have to end our time together.  See you later, love you baby. You don’t hang up the phone without saying goodbye do you?  Well… why would you do that to baby.

That, along with other things concerning your baby telling you things, such as; everything is going to be fine. Don’t worry about me I’m okay mummy or, when you are worried I am worried too mummy so please don’t be stressed.

Okay, am I an unfit parent or is half of this nicely phrased BS.  I mean, I’m all for talking to baby and playing with baby, I have no doubt that baby does respond and appreciates little tap and sound games, but what’s with the non sense talk.

She’s evidentially and educated professional and that’s the problem I think.  Our universities are spewing out gentle freaks that can only express themselves in the appropriate language of the profession.

Not to say that anything she is suggesting to do is wrong per say.  Then, what’s missing from her discourse? The common sense!  I think what she was trying to convey, is that it is important to establish a respectful relationship with your child starting from the get go.  We have to consider our children like full fledged individuals deserving of as much consideration as adults.  Interacting with an unborn child is a form of training for the parent and is also good for the development of babys’ brain.

See! I managed to agree with the actions and yet, was able to cut the new age BS out of it.  Again the host woman is not at all a life loving hippy type of person.  She is a normal looking educated professional with 2 daughters of her own and way too much time spent in those brain washing seminars.

That said, I’m pretty sure that if anyone confronted her about this.  She would end up explaining her logic in a  way very similar to what I just did.  So it’s not that she can’t think. It’s more of an institutional thing.  Steve and I have both met other professionals with the same problem.  I had a run in with a friend of mine who is a psychologist.  For the life or me, I cannot understand how she can help anyone with this circular type of speech.  She gives me a headcase every time she gets into the intervention mode.   An other girlfriend of mine is an ergo-therapist and she too has the professional talk embedded deep.  Her patients are not old and disabled they are an ageing clientèle with limited mobility. And don’t you dare call them otherwise!

I find something else bothersome about this.  I suspect an underlying arrogance at the bottom of this.  Maybe not an obvious and deliberate form, something more latent.  It wouldn’t be surprising since the very nature of problem is cliquish.  If you are a professional in any particular field, then you are part of a select group that can express their professional ideas with the appropriate vocabulary.  Otherwise you are somewhat of a neophyte with good intentions but really not suited for professional attention.  The medium is the message says Marshall. That’s how she managed to talk non sense for two hours and look perfectly credible.

Looking forward to the next class.