Tuesday, June 09, 2009

How to know if you are ready to be a parent

Remember all those programs that made teenagers go home with an egg for a week pretending it was their baby, trying not to break it? Or baby dolls with timers hidden in their plastic bellies to send them crying in the middle of the night? The idea was to try to show kids how difficult it is to be a parent. Unfortunately, they had it all wrong.

Here's what you need to be ready to do:

Walking on the hiking trail with our son, he stops us for the 2 billionth time. “Daddy! Daddy! A hole!” he trills.

My husband turns without the first hint of bitterness, and walks back 500 feet to where Isaac is standing. He looks down, the man who biked through Wales and Ireland, stood on the equator of the earth, programs robots that drive along the floor of the Pacific Ocean, and with passionate enthusiasm says, “Wow! A hole in the ground!”

Forget lost sleep, the years of weighty responsibility. If you are wondering if parenthood is for you, think instead of this.

4 comments:

bobbie said...

That's what it's all about, Darling. And, it really IS exciting to see these things through their eyes. They teach us so much. I couldn't begin to tell you how much you taught me.

Barbara said...

Go Mike!

Dianne said...

perfection!

I'm forwarding this to my son
He's going to be a Dad very soon

inkandpen said...

Kitty! I don't know if my mom mentioned it (though she's all excited, so I imagine she did...) but we're expecting, and now, also blogging! Find the new Proctor bike blog here, if you're interested: http://civilizedconveyance.blogspot.com.

Hope you're well,
Katie

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