My wife, Jackie, turned 29 years-young 10 days exactly after our son was born. We celebrated in good fashion with her friends and family making the trip in from out of town and her parents holding the party at their house. Our small two-bedroom can not accomodate all the people, plus there would be limited amount of place that mama could take baby to nurse.
We arrived fashionably late, last, actually, and Jackie justified this by taking the stance that now we have a new baby and are allowed 15 additional late minutes on our typical 30 late minutes she uses to get herself ready. I was ready by 10AM for the 12:30PM party and took care of baby until mama got ready. As she took baby from me she looked at my bare feet, “Now who’s running late?”, she said, with jaw dropping simplicity and seriousness that nearly set me on fire. Some things never change.
What I learned today about being a father:
Celebrations are great, but celebrating with your loved ones is even better. We have been super lucky that her family members have made the extra effort to come in and see baby and celebrate her birthday with us over this last weekend because in life family matters.
As a young boy my family, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, did just about everything together. We went on summer trips together, saw baseball games together, spent Sundays at grandma and grandpa’s house. We lived like a community, and every weekend we stayed with our cousins or they stayed with us or we all stayed at G&G’s (grandma & grandpa’s) because our parents believed spending time with family was important. This weekend was an eye opener, a realization that as a young adult through my early thirties I lost sight of the important roles are families play in raising us as individuals. My son won’t remember anything from this weekend, but it was great for Jackie and I to relive the simpliest childhood moments from our past that helped shape who we both are, and those moments we talked about all weekend all had to do with family.
What I think I know:
For my family to come to Madison, WI, they would have to travel from Omaha, NE; about eight hours by road one way and hard to get to through the air, so they have yet to meet baby. Though they couldn’t be here with us, technology has shortened the distance gap and allowed us to connect on a totally virutal level. My parents, both ripe for their ages, are not technically savy but have mastered the art of Skype. They love it, actually introduced it to me last year as a way to communicate face to face, and it’s been fantastic! I come from a large family and we are somewhat spread out over the midwest, but by Skyping I have been able to introduce baby Griffin (child) to his aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents via technology. I have spoken to my family more often in the last 12 days then I had in the previous 60, and now that I think I have mastered Skyping I know there are more face to face interactions to come.
Griffin probably can’t even see everyone through the computer screen, but for me and Jackie we have been able to stay connected, one way or another, with family. They say it takes a village, but what I think I know is the saying doesn’t mean the village has to do, it just means the village has to be, and we are lucky enough to be able to surround child with a village no matter the distance.
Being Daddy 101 