How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
And then, not moving and still quiet, my pops just starts to cry. (4.5)
Fred doesn't react the way that Bobby expects when Bobby tells his parents that he got Nia pregnant. Perhaps Fred is grieving for Bobby's lost youth, or maybe for the change that he knows is coming in Bobby's future. Maybe he's just crying out of disappointment, though. It's hard to tell.
Quote #2
I just smile and try to keep from curling up in the baby carrier with the kid. (7.21)
It's really hard for Bobby to keep up the façade that he's doing fine, especially at his doctor's office. But that's a thing new parents do: They try to function through the exhaustion.
Quote #3
Then I want to beg her for a note like I used to when I didn't want to do something and a sore knee or fever could get me out of it. […]
It just had to get me out of staying awake all night, changing diapers every hour, and doing nothing except think of the yawning little thing in the white booties, whose baby carrier was all I wanted to be in. (7.27, 31)
There's no easy way out of his life's situation, even though Bobby desperately wants one. He wants to regress to being a child again, to being someone's responsibility instead of having all the responsibility of being a father. Because if he could do that, then he wouldn't have to own up to his own responsibilities.