just two young parents

Date: 9/29/2021

I had recently had a kid, even though I’m only half way through college and nowhere near ready to be a parent. For some reason my partner wasn’t in the picture, so I had to raise the kid on my own. College being the way it is, I frequently had to leave the baby at daycare. I felt horrible for leaving her for so much time, and it began to take a toll on our bonding. When I would bring her back to my apartment at the end of a long day, she would seem completely uninterested in me, and I would just quietly do homework and make dinner. Months of this went by, and I was growing really concerned about my kid’s attachment to me (or lac thereof). One day, I went to the grocery store, putting the baby in a stroller to keep her soothed for the trip. As we came to the checkout line, I saw another parent in front of me on the phone. She looked like she was probably in her early thirties. But what really struck me is that she mentioned my dad’s name when she was talking. When she hung up, I sheepishly asked her how she knew my dad. She seemed really surprised, but calmly explained to me that he was her husband. Apparently she didn’t know that he had other, adult children. “So...is that,” I looked down at the stroller in front of her, “my sibling?” She chuckled nervously, “I’m afraid so.” We both should have been mortified that we had no clue about each other, but I was actually really happy to meet her. We became fast friends and confronted my dad together.