So Snooki had a kid. *Sigh*

Look, there are plenty of people out there who have kids that maybe shouldn’t or maybe don’t want to – maybe don’t even mean to – and end up being great parents anyway. So I’m willing to give this “maybe” the benefit of the doubt. At least for a while.

After all, it’s not my business to judge Snooki’s parenting, and honestly, I have little interest in thinking about this thing you call “Snooki” at all.

Unfortunately she’s already said something that goes against everything this blog stands for. And I don’t truck with that.

In the completely inconsequential and meaningless EXCLUSIVE cover story in People magazine, Snooki came out and declared that she was changing her lifestyle for good:

“When I got pregnant, everything changed,” says Polizzi, who will also appear on the final season of MTV’s Jersey Shore, premiering Oct. 4. “The partying is long gone. I’m a new person.”

We all know she’ll regret saying such things in about say, two weeks. But the fact that she said it is not the problem; it’s the fact that she thinks it.

My question is: why does she need to abandon partying?

If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that most posts are usually based around one of two themes:

1) you have no right to judge other parents; or
2) you don’t have to abandon your pre-baby lifestyle just because you became a parent.

This post falls under theme #2. But don’t get it twisted (I immediately apologize for using that phrase): I’m not talking about the extreme end of the spectrum.

Yes, if you’re a drug addict or a backyard wrestler or a knife thrower or a Juggalo, maybe the birth of your kid is a decent reason to reconsider your priorities. And yes, when it comes to partying, Snooki is a bit of an extreme case. She hasn’t evidenced much in the way of restraint or maturity, and it certainly won’t do to have her falling down drunk when she’s breastfeeding or when her son’s asleep in the next room.

That said, she can still party. As a new parent she’s gonna need the occasional night or two to cut loose without her kid, believe me.

We all know that she can afford a nanny or the occasional babysitter or even to ship her kid away to infant military school if she wants, and when someone else is caring for the kid there is no reason she should need to abandon the “hobbies” that both make her happy and make her who she is. Sure, it’s a little sad that drinking and being stupid and embarrassing are her “hobbies,” but to each their own, right?

When you become a parent, there most definitely exists a happy medium between becoming a boring buzz-killing drag and being an actual danger to your kid. And there’s no reason for Snooki, and the rest of us, to not have the right to explore that middle ground.

Except for the fact that she probably wouldn’t know moderation if it sat on her face (as evidenced by the fact that she immediately felt the need to go whole hog with a repudiation of her former lifestyle), in which case she any attempt at sobriety will result in a Frank The Tank moment and the total collapse of her family life.

So yeah, I guess you can disregard this entire post, but only in so much as it applies to Snooki. In regards to everyone else worrying what having a kid will mean for their social life, take heart: Having a kid doesn’t have to mean the end of fun. A big reduction in it, sure, but not it’s total obliteration.

Just don’t be an idiot and you can hang onto much of your old, pre-parent lifestyle.

I mean, come on, Snooki. Parents can have fun. You have to get married before your life totally goes to hell.