Good Lord...

A girl who goes to school with me who added me on Facebook a long, long time ago just had a baby. Cool, congrats, etc. But she posted a note the week she got out from the hospital with these guidelines for seeing the baby:

1. i will not be allowing visitors until monday, june 29th. this is to allow the baby to fully realize what life's about here in this home and to grow accustomed to it. he also is a little jaundiced, and needs to fully recover from that as well. this also gives me more time to recover after having a c-section.
2. visiting times will be allowed between 11 am-8pm.
3. if you are visiting and i need to feed the baby, please respect our privacy.
4. if you smoke and smoked on the way to the house, i ask that you change clothes before entering. this is to avoid third hand smoke.
5. if you would like to visit, please send a message to my mother with the time and date that you would like to visit. again, i will not accept visitors before june 29th. she is in charge of scheduling who comes when, and messaging her via facebook will be the only way to come visit.

Now, my commentary on each of these.

1. Fair enough. Girl just had a c-section, baby is jaundiced, fine. If or when I have my first (hopefully/maybe only) child, I'll want a few days to myself and the baby, so you know, cool.
2. Again, fair enough. I've heard sleep is rare during the newborn period, so you take what you can get.
3. Very fair. Who wants to breast-feed in front of people? Not me.
4. ...what. Third-hand smoke, are you serious? Yes, smoking is harmful, and yes, second-hand smoke can be/is harmful as well, but changing clothes? Trust me, I'll be the first to admit that I hate, hate, hate walking in a cloud of smoke, and going to Montevallo, you can't walk across campus without stumbling by at least one smoker. And that's fine, it's a campus, it's not a restaurant. (I don't like allowing smoking in restaurants, and yes, I think it should be banned/is okay to ban it; go outside if you want to smoke in a public place.) But just the "third-hand smoke" kills me.
   
5. This one gets me the most. I get the "not showing up unannounced" thing, but scheduling an appointment with your mother? That's like saying, "Congratulations on becoming a grandmother! Now be my personal secretary, please. Can I get some coffee with that?" ...again, are you serious?! Guess what! There are such things as texts, and internet, and phone calls. I think you can handle your own 'appointments.' And do I get a discount for reserving a place at the baby's tenth birthday in advance? That'd be great, thanks.

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I realize I really can't say anything, since I don't have children. But I just couldn't get over the gall of this girl. Making her mother her personal secretary, requiring a change of clothes before entering the house...that poor child is going to grow up sheltered like nobody's business, I think.

I hope she'll prove me wrong.