Question of the Week: That's My Baby

You discover your wonderful one-year-old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

I don't think I would want to make the switch. If I think this one-year-old is so wonderful, I've obviously become attached to him/her. And I assume that he or she has become attached to me and my hypothetical wife. I think I'd try to propose some sort of visitation agreement with the birth parents, maybe even become close friends with that family. I'm sure it never works out that way. I'm sure it's a Lifetime movie waiting to happen. My hypothetical wife would become irrational and end up wanting both kids. She'd go crazy, I'd have to file for divorce. Years later, all involved would just end up resenting each other. The kids grow up to become drug addicts because their childhoods were so screwed up. All of this could have just been solved by suing the hospital and switching the kids at the one-year mark. What was I thinking?

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.