3 Weeks of Fatherhood: What I’ve learned…

So I’ve been a father for 3 full weeks now. This week’s theme is “patience.” I already considered myself pretty patient. The nature of my job requires a lot of patience, and I’ve even been told by many of my customers that I’m a patient person. Well if life was an RPG (that’s role playing game for you non-nerds), I just gained a new level in patience. For all you experienced parents out there who are probably thinking, “You pathetic idiot, you have no idea how much harder it is going to get,” save your breath because I can already see it. “But no, even though you THINK you know how hard it is going to be, you really don’t!” Yeah! I get it!

But this week’s lesson in patience involved holding a screaming child to your ear, bouncing him in your arms, switching positions, standing up, sitting down, walking here, walking there, shh-ing in his ear, and doing pretty much anything you can do to pacify a baby only to have him get to a quiet whimper where you think he has worn himself out and then…BAM! He’s screaming again.

Why? What? Huh? Blarg?

The key is to focus. And by focus I mean ALL of your attention on the child. But my precious internet sites are just a few clicks away. I can bounce Chandler in one arm while I surf the web with the other. WRONG! He can tell you aren’t devoting your entire being to his happiness. I swear Chandler has an elevation meter built into him because I could hold him in the exact same position while sitting and he will go absolutely bananas because he can tell I’m not standing. And why should I sit? I didn’t sit all day. Why would I start when I got home?

But when I am patient I am rewarded with moments like the picture above. So no matter what this kid puts me through, I’ll be patient.

As patient as I can be.