The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms

This post is part of the Visions of the Future bloggers network – a group of bloggers inspired by the new TV series Continuum. The one hour police drama tells the story of Kiera Cameron, a regular cop from 65 years in the future who finds herself trapped in present day Vancouver with eight of the most ruthless criminals from the future, known as Liber8, loose in the city. In the collection of blog posts, various writers share their vision of the future and how they would deal with the challenges.

Here’s our vision of the life of a rookie mom in 2077. Head over to the Continuum website to catch the other posts and learn more about the series.

June 21st, 2077

Goodness, almost a month since I last posted. I can’t believe that Elron is already three months old and growing like a weed! Having a tearful day after saying goodbye to Mom this morning. She’s already called to let me know she’s back home. She still can’t get used to it only taking two hours to fly from Vancouver to Toronto – when she was young it took twice that long!

I will miss Mom, but I won’t miss how many times she told me how lucky I am to be a rookie mom in this age of ‘natural parenting’. Back when I was three months old Mom was already preparing to go back to work. It was rare for a mom to still be at home with a baby over six months old. People worked long hours and quality of life was at an all time low. Still they strived to keep their jobs and maintain their substantial incomes until suddenly the bubble burst – jobs became scarce and by the time unemployment reached record levels in 2063 the divide between two-income couples and zero-income families was unacceptable. The four day working week was introduced the government stepped up their ‘family values campaign’. It was back in 2066 they decided that families should be able to survive comfortably on one income and parents should be encouraged to raise their children in a family environment. So I receive the government subsidy to be a stay-at-home-mom with Elron until he’s five. Although I agree in principal I can’t help feeling a little cheated that the choices of what I do with my life and how I parent have been taken away from me. Well, I could stand my ground and go back to work of course, but I’d be one of the very few and almost as frowned upon as those that choose to formula feed! And I’m not that brave. And so I’m one of the new age of breastfeeding, babywearing Earth mothers And I know Mom, I’m lucky!

To cheer myself up after Mom left I booked myself in to Fit4Two’s virtual interactive postpartum fitness class tomorrow. It’s brilliant – it’s like the instructor is in the room with you, well she is (virtually!) It’s so much better than an online course – it’s nice to know you’re doing the exercises correctly to get the most benefit and be sure you’re not going to do yourself any damage. If you’re doing something wrong she’ll pick up on it right away and straighten you out. Of course the disadvantage is she can see you if you’re slacking off I really recommend it to all new moms for their postpartum exercise regime. If you haven’t already got hologram technology in your home TELUS2050 will set you up in days. It’s a bit pricey, but well worth it. Lucky for me Hubs is a big gadget man. He signed up as soon as it came on the market for his virtual cycle tour training. He’s now talking about the next gadget – a computer car, but I’m not keen – can’t get my head around not being fully in control of driving.

That’s at 4pm, so I’ll have plenty of time to check out the diaper biodegrade system mom bought me. I’ve had my eye on one, but they’re so expensive – well I guess you have to pay for the luxury of having diapers biodegrade in two weeks. Supposedly they don’t smell at all, but I’m going to put it out on the balcony anyway because it would take up way too much space in the apartment. Wow, babies sure do come with a lot of gear – our tiny apartment is packed, but that’s the price you pay for living in Vancouver – everyone wants to live here now Toronto is so unbearable in summer. I’m so grateful for my one button stroller as far as saving space around here goes. One press and the whole thing pops into shape when we’re going out and collapses down to fit easily in the coat storage area!

And I can always call Martha if I’m feeling down. Martha is my wonderful midwife and I can still call her any time I’m struggling until Elron is six months old. Of course she won’t be able to rush round as she’ll be looking after some other lucky family now, but she will always find time to call me back and come round if we really need some help. I’m so lucky to have had a baby since this scheme took off in Canada. Apparently they first had these schemes paid for by your medical insurance in the Netherlands back at the beginning of the century and it’s been in most of Europe for the last 20 years, but we’ve had to wait so long for the government to introduce it here. It’s such an amazing help to me when I didn’t have a clue what to do and was dog tired. Martha arrived the day after we came home from the birthing centre and stayed with us for 10 days. She was an amazing help in those first hectic days, especially helping me get to grips with breastfeeding, showed me how to bath Elron (as I didn’t seem to have enough arms!) and gave me time to spend with him while she prepared meals and took care of the mountains of laundry. I really miss her being around, but at the same time it’s good to be on our own as a family.

I’m thinking of moving Elron into his own room. He’s already getting too big for the cradle. I’m nervous about the move but we do have a sensory mattress in his crib so I’ll be alerted if there’s anything wrong just as well as if he was right here beside me in his cradle.

There I go, worrying again. I worry about everything. Mom says it’s natural. But there are so many more things to worry about than when she was a new mom back in 2047. For a start she didn’t have to worry about UPF clothing and sunblock unless they were going to be at the beach all day – certainly didn’t have to worry about it on a trip to the grocery store like we do. It’s such a shame having to pray for a cloud rather than a gorgeous sunny day. We just can’t chance going out with Elron’s super-sensitive baby skin – he’d fry in minutes. In fact with summer approaching I’m going to have to do what Martha suggests and make sure we stay indoors between 12 and 2. How depressing.

On Friday Elron and I have our first playdate with Aylene and Ronnette from the birthing centre. Elron and Ronnette have the same birthday – in fact they were born just minutes apart in neighbouring birthing pools. I’m so excited to go back there in August to be my sister’s birthing partner. She’s planning a hypnobirth this time and I think I will try that if/when Elron’s little brother or sister comes along. Hypnobirthing is the most popular way of giving birth – so popular that the birthing centre just opened a whole new wing. I got to take a tour before we left with Elron – it’s gorgeous, almost like visiting a spa retreat. They must have trouble getting people to leave. The atmosphere is so relaxing and the techniques so effective apparently medication is only needed in 10% of the deliveries – quite amazing stats!

Well, on with the day. I’ve been feeding Elron while using my new voice recognition type pad to ‘write’ this post – definitely one of my favourite baby shower gifts – c’mon the new mom deserves gifts too But now it’s time for some one-on-one play time with my little buddy.

Filed under: Parenting Tagged: | Continuum, hypnobirth, Liber8, Life in 2077, mom of the future, Parenting, virtual interactive fitness, Visions of the Future