I’m going to say something controversial: “Sex.” Now before you say, “Hey! This is a parenting blog! How could you talk about sex and babies on the same page?!” let me remind you that if it wasn’t for sex, there’d by no babies at all. Why would anyone who knows the responsibility and commitment of raising a child ever have a baby if God hadn’t tricked them into it by making it super awesome to make one.

Besides, sex doesn’t even mean what you think it means. I mean, it does, but it also means other things. Like did you know that SEX might also mean six but it’s been misspelled? It might even be a reference to the book SEX by Madonna, which is nothing but a pile of paper that you can pay money for!

In this case, I’m talking of course about the sex of a human person.

There are a lot of discussions about sex and gender these days, people are always saying, “but what about sex and gender?” But what about sex and gender? 

Allow me to be serious for a moment, because this is a serious topic:

Sex is about bodies and gender is about minds and roles and society and everything else. Also I definitely don’t know what I’m talking about so if you need advice please go away and talk to someone who knows what they’re talking about and know that I am with you in spirit. 

Now, back to baby nonsense.

A doctor will say to you, “would you like to know the sex of the baby?” This is the perfect time to look at your wife with an expression that communicates the feeling “I am afraid.” 

If you’re paying close attention, you will now know my sex, which is “has a wife.” If you are lucky enough to be like me, you will know that having a wife is both fun and convenient, since you won’t have to make a decision like the one i’m describing above.  

But what if you are the wife who has to have the baby and make the decision about whether to know the sex? We’re now at the point in this piece where I have no choice but to finally deliver on the promise of the title: SHOULD YOU FIND OUT THE SEX OF YOUR BABY?!?

Sure, it’s going to be the same whether you find out or not, and now you can start planning how you’re going to subvert the baby’s gender role by giving it a name like “The La Brea Tar Pits” so that the only thing anyone will be able to determine based its name is that you are very clever. 

NEXT UP: HOW TO NAME A BABY