Almost no one can take on an entire future in one step, much less while reeling emotionally.

It takes awareness that it's not only not a bad thing to let others do things their own way, it is in fact an improvement. It makes life richer and more interesting.

I'm sure there are people who can toggle quickly from all-in caregiving to structured socializing, but I can't think of any offhand.

You can't make someone agree with you, not even when you're 100 percent sure you're right.

Awkwardness is when there's a risk of a perception gap between what you mean and what you appear to mean.

If the guests want to wrest the check away from the host, because the host is also the guest of honor, then the guest who volunteers has to cover the whole thing. A guest can't volunteer -all- of the guests to pay for the host/honoree.

For some people, the better route for finding like-minded parents is just to get out of your house with your baby and frequent baby-friendly places.