Parents have an irritating habit of telling the world how wonderful, clever, gifted etc their children are. It used to annoy me, until I became a parent – and I worked out that it is a trick of the mind. Something happens to you where you do actually believe it, and think it’s so obvious that others should notice too. Take the above picture: my as-yet-unnamed daughter, born seven hours ago. A few years ago, I would have looked at such a picture and recalled my father’s saying that they all look either like Winston Churchill or a pound of mince.
But now, to me, this is a picture of what is self-evidently the most beautiful girl in London. Reagan once compared government to a baby’s alimentary canal: endless appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. This is my third chance to experience the biological part of that analogy. But unlike government, you forgive babies everything.
P.S. The (wonderful) midwife signed off with ‘congratulations — she’s going to cost you!’ A very British welcome to the world.
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