Comments on: Laurence Fox Opens Up About Struggling With New Fatherhood

By: Patrice

Patrice — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:06:56 +0000

Good fdor Lawrence for having the courage to be honest about this. Not all parents (INCLUDING many new mom’s) fall in love with their children right away. The fact of the matter is, no matter how much you may instinctively feel love FOR them, a baby is still a stranger in your home for quite a little while.

By: Molly

Molly — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:51:23 +0000

Wow, what a jerk. Not about the not connecting immediately with his son thing – that’s completely normal – but the sitting mentally cursing out his friends instead of politely asking them to leave. They can’t read your mind! And if you don’t want to ask, fine, but then you give up your right to be “enraged.”

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:30:23 +0000

I also thinks it has to do with the person. My mother is not a maternal person. She was not the best mom and I think should have never had children. She did it according to times. Now that we are adults, we are more friends then mother and daugther because she can relate to me now. Not every woman has a maternal instinct and not every person bonds with their baby.

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:13:25 +0000

I agree with Mulchee. Plenty of people have adopted children at a month or older and they bond with them.

By: mulchee

mulchee — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:44:05 +0000

to Kelly (above):

Its ok. I was in intensive care as a newborn for a month. keep in mind this was 1971 and my mother was not even allowed near me. She said once to me that this is why we were never really that close but I disagree. Every day is a day to love your child more and grow together. Its ok that you didn’t bond right away, what’s important is that you bond now and in the future. I didn’t have a baby until 37 as I was not sure I would be good at it. My parents were emotionally completely distant. The day I had my girl was the happiest day of my life and luckily, the love and parenthood was all there for me.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:10:56 +0000

I must admit (although I’ll be slammed) I did NOT have an instant connection with my daughter (first born). She was put on oxygen for the first 12 hours, we were told that she had some severe health problems (false, thankfully), and then she had colic. It took a LONG time (months) to learn to love her as a mother (in my eyes) should and to really connect with her. That said, I was instinctively protective from day one.

I appreciate his honesty (not many people are brave enough to do that), and the male perspective about multi-babymaking is interesting to think about (and probably true).

By: akaisha

akaisha — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:52:47 +0000

i have to echo jinni here. if a mom had said this i highly doubt, from the many previous comments on this site, that everyone would be so accepting.

just something to think about.

By: jinni

jinni — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:24:41 +0000

It is great that a celebrity can express these feeling.

I must admit I am wondering that if it were the mother that expressed these feeling would people be so understanding. I say this because people are usually more understanding when fathers aren’t instantly into their babies, but come down hard on a mother that reveals she needed time to connect to her newborn.

By: madison

madison — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:10:35 +0000

Very refreshing article – good for him for telling it like it is, natural human reactions and emotions.

The only thing I want to comment on though is the bit about people who don’t have kids “not getting it”. I’m sure that happens, not arguing that. But I’d like to add that it goes both ways. I know people who insist on being the last to leave a BBQ or party, way past their kids bedtimes, and all the other people pay the price b/c of the over-tired melting down kids. That’s not cool either.

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:06:35 +0000

Roll-up cigarettes, where you have the tobacco and the paper and roll them yourself a la Kate Winslet.