Dinner: a platter with grilled beef, pork, chorizo, yucca, salad, and cheese.

This story is about when my baby was born (and my mother-in-law was there). Sometimes I wish I could understand why older people can be so inconsiderate and not think before they speak (and no, I don't think we should let it slide just because they're older and deserve respect; respect should be reciprocal, from both sides: you respect me, I respect you).

It was just a few days before my baby was born, literally days (I think it was a week before my baby was born), and we were eating when the woman asked what we were going to do about our cats (we had two, up-to-date on their vaccinations, neutered, always fed the same food, and had a closed litter box that was cleaned every day). My husband and I wondered, what are we going to do about it? And the woman couldn't think of anything better to say than that she had a neighbor whose daughter had just had a baby and also had cats, and the baby died a few days after being born because of the cat. I was speechless, honestly. I don't even remember what my husband said to her; I just completely ignored her comment.

Did she really think it was appropriate to say something like that when my baby was just days away from being born? Completely unnecessary and reckless.

Later, when my baby was born and we were home, I decided to exclusively breastfeed (at first it was hard and difficult to achieve, but I did it). Even for the first two months, while my breastfeeding was establishing, I decided to supplement with formula (but I only gave him two bottles on formula days; the rest of the time it was just breast milk). One day, while I was struggling to get my baby to eat (in the early days), the woman said, "I think he's still hungry. That milk you're producing isn't good and it's not nourishing him, that's why he's crying." (This was before I decided to give him formula.) I completely ignored her again.

Reckless x2

Recklessness at the most vulnerable moment