::A Geek in Korea::

With the family weighing on the baby along the way, we get all sorts of cross-cultural tidbits from my Korean relatives. Some of it is helpful, some of it is confusing, and some of it is just head scratchingly weird.

My mother in law had a rather weird take on the timing of our announcement. “Ah, it’s too bad you will have the baby next July, and not a month earlier. It’ll be too hot, and you won’t be able to turn on the air conditioning!” That’s not exactly helpful information. First of all, it’s not like we planned anything in our lives around the use of our air conditioner in the past. What exactly are we supposed to do about it now? When the baby decides it’s time, it’s time.

The air conditioner is one of those things that I’m not sure about. I don’t know if it’s bad for a baby. It’s not like the house is freezing cold even when we turn it on. The last thing I read is that a fan and good air circulation was good for a baby’s room.

All the “Fan Death” believers in the family act like turning on a device designed to move air around the house in another room would be a death sentence for an infant. I’m not going to be running around worried that some wind is lethal. We’ve had multiple people tell us conflicting things about whether they think any of this was important. I think common sense will rule with this one.

An aunt has suggested she KNEW my wife was pregnant because she had a vivid prophetic dream about it. Anyone close to you in Korea that has a dream containing certain elements swears that you’ll have a baby of a certain sex, occupation, or temperament. Her aunt dreamed a tree filled with flowers was growing out of a pair of rocks on a mountainside, and while her two friends walked right by the tree, she wanted to stop and watch it blow in the sun. In her dream she stopped and shook the tree to see the leaves and flowers dance in the wind.

My aunt only volunteered this information after my wife had send out the family wide text message. She didn’t call us up to tell us before hand, and prophetic dreams in hindsight are always 20/20. I told my wife it was nice her aunt was thinking about us, but even she thought that worrying about relatives dreams isn’t something I have to be concerned about.

I don’t mind other people sharing their advice or anything. It’s entertaining to see what the concerns of people around me are concerning everything too. I just hope when the baby actually arrives they respect the boundaries and opinions we hold.