recorder

we had our first interview last evening with tandy (the woman from queen's conducting a study on new parents). it was really neat and interesting, she asked good questions. it'll be interesting to see how our opinions and approaches change in the next six months. it turns out we were the first people she interviewed! i'm going to share the study details with our classmates at prenatal class in case they're interested in participating.

over the course of our interview, there were a few re-occurring themes that kept coming up:
• many of our decisions are made through observing others and learning from other people's experiences (mostly through conversations)
• many significant decisions were made naturally without the need to do a lot of research because they fit best with our life-approach (breastfeeding, cloth-diapers)
• we're very frugal people, and undesirable financial expenses have a large impact on our decisions
• brendan and i are very like-minded
• we're compatible because we respect each other - i value/appreciate brendan's simplicity, and he trusts my judgement when i make recommendations (i make recommendations that fit with his desire for simplicity, and he supports my creative ideas)
• we believe in a big picture approach to parenting - making decisions that have long-term benefits rather than just short-term easy/fast solutions
• we tend to be counter-cultural. not that we do it on purpose, but our decisions have to make sense to us, and not be the result of social norms
• we're also keeping our options open, recognizing that we're entering uncharted territory for us, and we don't know how things will unfold (so-and-so is the wildcard!)

all-in-all, it was a positive experience. i think we have a better understanding of ourselves as people, as partners and as parents.

when the right time comes,
i'll be what you've grown to hate.