LONG POST AHEAD, but i NEED advice.

I’m 19 weeks pregnant, and I’m in the Children First program. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a program for first-time moms, and it begins in early pregnancy and continues until your baby is 2 years old. It’s kind of like mommy classes. You meet every other week with a nurse at your local health department (or the nurse can do home visits) and every visit you cover a new topic. (Things like drugs during pregnancy, SIDS, healthy eating, labor & delivery, etc). and then when your baby is 2 they graduate from the program—they get a little cap & gown and there picture goes in the paper. The program is overall really helpful! And I am lucky enough to have a boyfriend who wants to attend these appointments with me so he’s just as educated as I am on how to take care of our daughter when she arrives.

Here’s the thing. We’re teenagers (18) in our senior year of high school. (Baby is due one week after graduation). He has been working at the same small town pizza company since he was 16. His manager is very unprofessional (will leave him alone at the store to go get a drink from Sonic or go “say hi” to her husband while my boyfriend is alone at the store, taking orders, serving customers, and making the pizzas). Mind you, she lucked into the management position because her grandpa owns the store 🙄 She also likes to have my SO come in earlier than he was scheduled to so that she can go shopping or what have you. This week, he is going in early so she can go get a tattoo. And most Saturday nights, she doesn’t work (on their busiest night) so she can go get drunk. But my boyfriend deals with it without complaint, as we have a child on the way and need the money.

So back to the Children First program, the appointments are every 2 weeks at 2:30 PM. My boyfriends shifts on weekdays usually start at 5. When his manager texts and asks him to come in early, he usually says yes, unless we have an appointment. Recently, my boyfriend told me his co-workers and manager have been giving him a hard time for going to these appointments instead of working. They have said things like “You need to stop going to these appointments,” or “why do you have to go, it’s not like you’re the one who’s pushing out the kid”. So his manager can make my SO go in early so she can get drunk or get a tattoo or anything that involves being unprofessional, but when he can’t come in due to an appointment that involves HIS CHILD, it’s a problem?

THEN, one of his co-workers had the nerve to say “It’s only gonna get worse when the kid comes, because she’s gonna make him babysit.” And his manager said “He doesn’t need to babysit, he needs to be at work.”

EXCUSE ME? BABYSIT? IT👏🏻IS👏🏻HIS👏🏻CHILD👏🏻

HE IS NOT A BABYSITTER. HE IS THE FATHER. IF HE IS WATCHING OVER OUR DAUGHTER IT IS NOT “babysitting” ITS PARENTING, IT IS BEING A FATHER.

Most of his co-workers are a few years older than ya (his manager is only 2 years older) but just hearing this stuff makes me feel like they’re teenagers. They don’t understand what it’s like to have a child on the way, they don’t know what it’s like to prioritize between your child and your job. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Am I taking this too personally? Or would you guys feel the same way?