new mother anxiety

[Portia]

So is developing temporary OCD actually a symptom of reproducing? Because if so ... put another tally in the "con" column, sheesh.

Small children have literally NEVER been safer. If this kid doesn't get vaccinated, I may have to punch things.

[Digit]

I could see hypervigilance over offspring being evolutionarily selected, like mothers back in the early millennia of Homo sapiens seeing a lion behind every tree having more kids who survive to reproduce if that general tendency were somewhat of a passed on trait, maybe it would show up in the mother seeing whatever danger she's heard of in her epoch lurking everywhere.

[Carrapicho]

That question totally reminded me of this commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMhHzucl9lI

I'm a mother of two and just asked everyone in advance of visiting the new babies to wash their hands before holding the baby, and then I just trusted that they did so. I also kept a bottle of sanitizer in plain view but didn't push it on them. I definitely understand the annoyance of the question asker, though I would agree with the writers that they should just suck it up. I was also annoyed by my sister and her husband constantly asking my potty-training son if he had washed his hands when he was done. I was like, "I'm the mom, let me enforce the rules." haha

[Zedability]

I could see hypervigilance over offspring being evolutionarily selected, like mothers back in the early millennia of Homo sapiens seeing a lion behind every tree having more kids who survive to reproduce if that general tendency were somewhat of a passed on trait, maybe it would show up in the mother seeing whatever danger she's heard of in her epoch lurking everywhere.

True story, evolutionary theory suggests that OCD actually developed because OCD-like tendencies in moms made babies more likely to survive and be healthy growing up.

[NovemberEast]

This is why i don't go around new moms until they ease out of that phase. It's just too uncomfortable.

It could also explain why I haven't held many newborns.

[Portia]

I saw a young girl who was about ... 2? ... Between 1 and 3, anyway, who was dolled up and my boyfriend said was cute. However, her face looked like a gremlin when she was eating, and I got into that thing where you're more conspicuous in trying NOT to look. I ... I haven't held many babies, by which I mean physical contact with humans under age 9.

And Zed that's quite interesting. What would be the evolutionary advantage for men to develop such traits, then?

[Zedability]

Whatever genetic components contribute to OCD aren't carried on gender-specific chromosomes. Plus men have an X chromosome anyways. So just the mothers' push distributes it equally to both genders because the idea is that the baby, which is 50% likely to be either gender, is more likely to survive because of the mother's OCD and also carries forward the mother's genes.