Questions
Someone recently posed some questions via e-mail which I suspect (read: fear) I’ll be asked alot in the near future so I thought I best address them here and try to cut the rampaging hordes off at the pass.
When is your girlfriend and son expected to be out of the hospital (if they’re not out already)?
They’re out already.
How did it feel to become a dad?
Warm, bright, a little dizzy. We were in the operating room and I was in scrubs which included a face mask so very warm and bright.
Was it as much of a life altering experience as you thought it would be?
As much as I expected it to be? Yes, more or less. As much as other people made it out to be? No. Don’t get me wrong I love my son and it was a unique experience but it didn’t change absolutely everything about me. I still enjoy the same things I used to, I still have 2 arms and 2 legs, my skin didn’t turn green, no head explosions. I still watch Doctor Who on Sundays and 24 on Mondays. I still like Pet Shop Boys and pizza and chocolate. I still enjoy my job and my relationships with most people are more or less what they were before.
People seemed to revel, almost maniacally, at the looming all-encompassing life-altering experience. I don’t know why they do that. It’s like they’re enjoying trying to make you face an abyss, shoving your face into it as it were. It seems rather perverse if you ask me. Did having a son change the nature of who I am? No, it just added to it a little. The heavens didn’t open up, angels didn’t sing, I didn’t fall to my knees weeping with joy. The instant of his birth did not cause some sort of fundamental metamorphosis.
Again, he’s a great kid and I love him but let’s not make this into something it isn’t.
If things change it will be a series of small steps determined as much by his emerging personality as mine.
Now the epidural on the other hand, that nearly broke me but that was the result of several factors, mostly the completely unnecessary 13 hour delay we encountered due to a nursing shortage. That, however, is a discussion for another time.
I think it would be nice if it stopped being about how things did or did not change for me and became more about finding out what the little guy is like.
May 7th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I think the questions everyone keeps asking are them trying to find out if you are as proud a father, as can be. In other words, maybe most people just want to know that this is the best experience of life for you so far….yah, think? As much as you are finding out what your son is like, he’s doing the same with everyone he comes in contact with! My last experience with him was absolutely mesmorizing watching him check me out and my voice, and being so good….