Getting in touch with the other side again…

I’ve written before on the topic of events or activities that seem to get a man in touch with his feminine side. At least that’s the theory – that we all have two sides and that certain activities or events touch one side more than the other. Today I attended the baby shower for Laura, our weekend receptionist, who is as the say in the Bible “great with child”. Laura is due in June, but the baby looks to be about ready at any time. Anyway, Laura has already started her maternity leave and today the office had a baby shower for her.

Now I have to tell you that baby showers are about as far away from normal “guy things” as you can get. So, likely no one expected me to show up today. Only one other male agent showed up. So, we were in the minority by a big margin. As I opined here recently, there is a huge difference in the way that male and female agents “see” things, especially houses, but things in general. That’s normal and healthy. What’s also healthy is trying to occasionally get in touch with that other side, that different view of things and that’s a little of the reason that I try to attend these otherwise “girls events” in the office.

I think every female agent that attended today is a mommy, so they have a special empathy and bond with Laura, for whom this is the first-born. The ooohhs and aaahhs as she unwrapped each present were the genuine sharing of an experience that all of them had been through and fondly remembered. Of course there were the requisite jokes about what changes when they grow up, but everybody in the room was reliving their own baby moments as she held up each little onesie or tiny dress (Laura is having a baby girl). The guys sat in bemused silence or cracked wise every now and then.

I think I did pretty well. I held out until the conversation turned to birthing classes and the details therein, at which time, as most guys do, I excused myself. It is obvious that guys cannot and will never share in this experience and thus will always be outsiders to these little pre-birth rituals; however, I’m glad that I went. It was fun to see the ladies of the office in this shared mommy mode.

We typically interact in the office at a fairly professional level and it is only through events like this and the occasional party that we all get to let down our guards a bit and just be normal human beings. For the guys, if one is secure enough in his own male sexuality to occasionally get in touch with this feminine side, it really doesn’t harm anything and may even make you a better man. Oh, isn’t that the cutest little onesie?