Matthew Moment

Everyone I know that's important to me knows about this I think, including the person in question, so I'm happy to share this with you.

One night, late into my wife's first pregnancy with our first child, and some time after we'd agreed that if it was boy we'd call him Matthew, and if a girl we'd call her Bethan, I woke up, jabbed my wife from her sleep and said "I don't want to call him Matthew if he's a boy". I know not why to this day, I just had that "moment" when it just didn't seem right (apologies to anyone called Matthew who's reading this - no offence intended). Luckily, we had a close second choice, and when the little lad duly appeared, he was monickered "James" - and he's seemed quite happy with it through his 13 years to date.

Fortunately I didn't have that moment with our second, who was always Bethan, although ironically we had decided if it had been a boy it would have been Matthew but I didn't have any iffy moments the second time around.

Every now and again I get what I call my "Matthew moments" when an agreed and firm decision suddenly seems completely wrong. It's a funny feeling, and the challenge is deciding whether you stick to your guns, or go with the flow...