Parenthood causes parents to grow an extra heart. It's a special heart that makes parents feel as if they've been stabbed whenever anything happens to their children.
With each hacking cough, Shane twists the imaginary knife a little deeper.
It was worse when he was an infant. At least I trust him to breathe on his own now. Each fit still snaps me to a cringing alert.
For Carrie and myself, the bonus empathy isn't limited to our own child either. Carrie started tearing up watching the scene in Lilo and Stitch where the little sister is separated from her older sister. "I never cried at this scene before! This is Shane's fault!" she cried! News stories that used to be 'sad' feel more like a gut punch to me now.
Carrie and I tried to start Battlestar Galactica a while back. It's supposed to be a decent sci-fi series, right? A Cylon kills an infant (off screen) in the beginning; We turned it off. It hasn't graced our screen since. I get that they were trying to show "Look! Evil!" but that sort of thing hits way too close to home. Our emotional reaction where children are concerned has been multiplied tenfold by parenthood.
Which can be an upside, too. You can find evidence of it posted all over my blog.
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