Do air conditioners make us wimpy?
And by extension, am I making my kid wimpy by putting an air conditioner in his room? There is something wrong with the way we think about parenting in this country when society tells us to scrutinize every action so that we know if we are being the perfect parent or ruining our children. But as I lay in bed last night, without air conditioning or fan, listening to the neighbor’s central air crank away, thinking about how I only had a fan in my room growing up, considering the mythical desire I have to not put our AC window units in before August regardless of the temperature outside, this was my thought: Will my kid be a wimp because we put an air conditioner in his room?
Just as the heat and humidity started to creep in two nights ago, Nathan had a night terror. (At least that’s what the nurse we talked to back in March called them.) He’s been having a few a month since January, and other than the ones in March that accompanied a fever, there’s nothing remarkable about them and there doesn’t see to be any rhyme or reason to them. But going to bed on time and sleeping in a cool room seem to help. So last night as Nathan took his bath and I remembered how sweaty he’s been the night before, I asked Tim to put the AC in his room. No night terror last night. Was it because of the AC? Who knows. Will Nathan grow up to be a wimp because of the AC? Since he loves playing outside, getting dirty, and has never complained about being hot (he really really really wanted to wear his flannelly superman pjs as clothes today) I think we’re okay. Now this stupid parenting culture our society has cultivated just needs to get out of my head.
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Everyone is just too bossy—it starts with What To Expect and just gets worse from there. And air conditioners only sometimes make us wimpy; other times they keep us from being a wimpy melted puddle of goo.