How Baby

Hello friends! I’m back from Japan and (almost) back onto a normal sleep schedule, though I do write this at 1AM, feeling completely awake and alert. Japan was absolutely lovely, particularly the hot springs, and we had a great time. I already miss how quiet and efficient the trains are, and how so many things just seemed to work better than they do here, but it also made me very grateful for the beauty and comfort of where we live now. Also, my bed. Japan doesn’t have my bed, so, points deducted. 🙂

I’ve had this comic in the mental hopper for a while now, because even now as Momo arcs ever onward into teenagerdom, she continually impresses me by how calm, conscientious, and thoughtful she is. Like, in ways that completely surpass me, to be quite honest.

Not only am I proud (and also relieved), but… it’s also such an humbling realization. That this is how it’s supposed to work, actually. I’m able to impart to her so much wisdom that comes directly from my own struggles, whether or not I have defeated them. To see her become better than me is a blessing. It’s antithetical to the first few lines of a poem I think of often:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

I don’t just see my faults in her. I see my lifetime of experience coming home to roost in her, too. I see her watch me and learn how to be better. I share with her what it’s like to be a human in this world, in the hope that she’s well prepared for it, and… it’s working. She’s a tremendously good person, with good instincts and not just a moral compass, but a moral anchor.

It must be so interesting for those who binge How Baby, who fly through weeks of her life in only a few minutes. Who, in the same sitting, read comics about my anxiety of her not fitting well in school and me being ill-suited to the first few years of parenting alongside comics like these, where… where it’s okay. I wish I could have imparted the same breezy resolution to my struggling self. She’s okay, Lindsay of the past. She’s okay now, and she’s gonna do great.

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TRANSCRIPT

Panel 1: Momo waters her plants
Text box: Waters herself and her plants

Panel 2: Momo, in silhouette, wearing a bathing suit with a tote bag, rubs sunscreen on her arms
Text box: Remember sunscreen

Panel 3: Momo sips a frappuchino while writing on her phone
Momo, via text: happy birthday grandma!
Text box: Has a list of everyone’s birthdays

Panel 4: Momo kneels, folding her laundry
Text box: Puts away her laundry (eventually)

Panel 5: Momo adds olive oil to a big bowl
Momo: Fat is flavour and helps absorb the nutrients in my food!
Text box: Healthy relationship with food

Panel 6: Momo puzzles over a sheet of paper and a box of Lego-like things
Text box: Reads instructions

Panel 7: Momo crosses her arms and makes a disgusted face in front of the numbers 67
Text box: Rejects social media and memes

Panel 8: Lindsay, gobsmacked, looks at Momo, who is reading a book and listening to music
Lindsay: …are you a better human than me?!