Indian Parents in USA-I

Mom delivered a healthy baby, dad is thrilled about it. He calls up all his friends and family in India and lets them know the good news. But does he have any clue what lies ahead? Mom is also so happy to have the baby in her hands, she forgets everything until she gets back home. Once home, they have to battle with sleepless nights and the added chores of the new baby. Dad is forced to learn diper changing, handling a fussy baby and bottle warming. Indian dads if they had a baby in India, would have never thought of doing these things. The role of a father in a kid's life in India, would not start until the kid starts going to school. But in US, it starts pretty early. The first time their baby has a cold, they are scared, the baby is constantly crying, not able to breath properly and is not sleeping at nights. They rush to hospitals for all small problems. Then one of their friends tells them to buy a book on ' What to expect in the first Year'. Now, when you tell this to your mom in India, what would she say? Oh great! so they raise kids by reading books in America? Yes, they do, because there is nobody else to turn to. And even if they are they don't trust each other because everybody is as inexperienced as you are. As I said before medical system is very complicated here in US, your baby is burning up with high fever and you call for an appointment. They ask you what the problem is and they say, ok it's just fever so go and buy some tylenol and follow the instructions at the back and if the fever does not come down after 2 days then call us back. After 2 days things get even worse and then they react and give an appointment. After seeing everything the doctor feels that until you give an antibiotic, things won't be better so he suggests some. I mean why don't they give appointments earlier and give the right medication in the first place, I don't understand.The baby starts to grow up and as the months go by, you will get used to the medical system and to get an appointment you will say that you kid has 104 fever when there is only 100, it is all part of the game.

Most Indian couples are petite, I mean we don't look like big and tall American people because our build is petite. And so you will have petite babies and the babies don't seem to be as chubby and cute like American babies, it's a fact. But because we are staying here and we ate good fatty and healthy foods during pregnancy doesn't mean that we can have big babies. But we Indians try to compare our kids with American kids all the time. I wish mine was as chubby as yours is what most Indian moms say but it's not possible, it's your genes, it's your color of the skin, how can you have a baby without those characters. You know, there's a joke I can't help but remember at this moment. When I was pregnant, my mom gave me these beautiful posters of babies and asked me to keep them in my room and look at them. She said if I looked at them all the time then I would have a baby just like the babies in the poster. When I delivered, my son looked more like his dad. My mom imediately said, 'I asked you to see those posters and you never did, you always saw your husband and so the baby looks like him'. When I said this to my husband, he said 'if that was the case I would have asked you to see some good movie star's face. If he is born to us he will look like us'.