Love Is A Mess

She was very young, in her twenties, walking right in front of me, pushing a shopping cart full of daily essentials. Suddenly she turned around, looking past me, and said, “Where are you?” I looked around likewise and saw her husband, loitering in a little distance, with two kids in tow of about four years old and a little one about two years old. She examined her family for a second and asked, “Where is the baby?” He replied, “It’s here.” The woman said, “Where? I can’t see.” I was not sure if the couple considered the two-year-old girl as the baby, or they have another one somewhere in the vicinity. The husband is very cute and very bored. His attention was not in the people around him or even in this Walmart. It’s plain he’s making an effort to be involved.

I just thought to myself — the poor woman. She needs all the help she can get, but her husband is not much of a help. She’s going to work herself to death with all the responsibilities. Or probably it’s just my imagination, but it’s likely the case that the woman just falls in love with this cute guy. And the next thing she knows, she’s the mother of three or four beautiful kids. He is young and in love too and wants a big family too, but he hasn’t thought through all the work and responsibilities.

What can this poor woman do? I wonder. How about dump this cute guy and find an ugly one who loves to be with the kids and helps her raise them? That sounds outrageous and she obviously won’t do it. When will the artificial intelligence be good enough to play the role of babysitter and nanny? All we’ve heard about AI is surveillance and drones. How about robotic nanny and maid that overworked mothers badly need?

Love is a mess. Humans are hopeless when love is concerned.