The child is father to the Goldensprog.

For all of John's smug, aggravating churlishness, it may be said that he had one virtue, if one may call it that, that Mike lacked: tenacity. He worked as hard at being a jerk as he did at his paying job. The hints at domesticity we see in later years are brought on either by fear of Elly's rage or slacking off on being a nincompoop. Michael, on the other hand, spent (as aprilp_katje reminded me) his life avoiding effort of any sort. From being too lazy to learn to accept defeat to too slothful to adapt to the presence of a younger sister, most of his nastiness has as it root cause his refusal to budge from his comfort zone. People, as I was reminded, are always genuinely surprised when he lives up to a commitment or does anything thoughtful. They can usually expect him, you see, to sit on his rear end complaining about the cruelty of having to move.