Alternative Realities & Having Kids

Anybody else ever have alternative realities? I have them all the time; more so when my mind is unencumbered by stress or worry. I have them about insignificant things and big, important things. I don’t plan for them or try to induce them – they just sort of come up on me unexpectedly.

Wait. I think “alternative reality” is a term that Debi and I made up to describe this phenomenon. An alternative reality is basically a daydream wherein I picture, in vivid and sometimes minute detail, an alternative outcome to an event or course of action. It’s kinda’ like that movie, Sliding Doors.

I don’t lose consciousness or anything when I do it and it usually comes to me in a flash. I might have them at work or while driving down the road. I often have them when I’m involved in a conversation with someone. Often it is humorous and it’s always terribly interesting (to me anyway).

I should mention that I am not currently nor have I ever been a heavy drug user.

I thought of the alternative reality subject for two reasons. One, because I was reading a friend’s blog wherein he had an alternative reality (unbeknownst to him) about raisins being upset about being thrown away. And two, because I talked to a friend today who is expecting a baby. My pregnant friend is fretting about what to do, how to do it, when to do it, etc. and I was reminded of when Debi and I were expecting our first child.

Boy, did I have some major alternative realities. I imagined the baby having two heads. I imagined Debi falling down the stairs (we lived in a one-story house). I imagined the baby becoming a world-renowned pianist. I imagined the baby walking on the moon. I imagined the baby doing every weird, great, sensational, and alarming thing that can be imagined I think.

The alternative reality zone of my brain kicked into high gear when I found out we were expecting. It freaked me out at first, but eventually I just learned to go with it. I suspect that every expectant parent has those thoughts in some form or another.

Our eldest child is now almost 5 and I’m still having alternative realities about her and her little sister. Sometimes my alternative realities are of a worrisome nature, but just as often they are fun and exciting.