#Parenthood

A baby announcement is a public ceremony in which parents use their newborn as a shield to solicit self-validation from society. It floods social media and group chats under the guise of celebration, repaying congratulatory messages with a mere sticker in a one-way communication. While masquerading as a sanctuary of joy, it is in fact the trailer for the parenting hell that commences simultaneous with the congratulatory telegrams.

Childbirth is a ceremony that can be called both miracle and torture. It is a grand opera of pressure and pain performed on the stage of the mother’s body. Accompanied by countless nurse calls and doctors’ chants of encouragement, it delivers both a fleeting moment of joy and an unending battle. At the first cry, the world is rebooted, and participants receive the proud badges of accomplishment and exhaustion.

Infertility is that curious phenomenon of demanding offspring only to be denied the outcome. It stands as a symbol of expectation and frustration forming queues in clinic waiting rooms. Its causes writhe in the loop of self-blame labels, medications, and endless test results. Each social media congratulation from friends lands like a thorn in the palm—an ironic sting. It is the paradox itself that progress in civilization has outpaced the most fundamental human endeavor.

Pregnancy is a high-risk, high-reward venture that integrates an unlisted stock called life into the investment portfolio of the body. An invisible manager named hormones operates around the clock, triggering unscheduled downtimes (morning sickness) and volatile price swings (mood fluctuations), tossing the investor into turmoil. Despite being dubbed the “stable phase,” it merely presents the illusion of rest before the next upheaval. The final event, childbirth, paradoxically abandons cost reduction and risk control, incurring excessive expenses (pain) while reclaiming shareholder rights (parental rights). For those attending the shareholders’ meeting of responsibility and affection, pregnancy becomes an unforgettable lifetime presentation.