Elton John said it best in Lion King when he sang ‘It’s the circle of life’
Today I write this not just as a married man, but I write it as a soon to be father. The feeling is still so surreal; the fact that I am to become a father and influence another life and be a leading example is frightening, especially because I sometimes struggle keeping myself together at times. Nonetheless, I am beyond excited and feel like we were blessed beyond belief to be able to become parents.
Buddy has taken to the change quite admirably I must admit. He can’t leave my wife alone; wherever she goes he is right behind her and always has to make himself comfortable on or around her stomach. He feels that something is growing inside and just like us he can’t keep his excitement to himself. Whenever I start to think about the role of a ‘father’ there’s a few things that I have learnt what not to do and never will.
I will feel tired because of waking up to change diapers or feeding time, but I will never see my child as a burden. My wife will have to wake up regularly to breastfeed, but I will never let her do anything alone when it comes to our child. We might feel irritated because of lack of sleep or many other factors, but I will never make her the target of my frustrations and take anything out on her. Our lives are going to change overnight and with all I have heard from friends and family it sounds like a bittersweet ordeal and whatever may come, we can just do what most first time parents do; our best.
Above all, I will be the father that will never walk out on my family and expect them to ‘just be ok’. So many people take the role of parenthood for granted and just don’t care at all. So many couples around the world struggle for months, even years to conceive a child of their own and then you get men and women who literally throw their children away, not only when they are young, but at a later age when they feel that this family is not for them anymore. Children are like sponges, no matter the age they remember and it teaches them to become stronger or cripple them for the future.
I have learnt a lot in my life about what not to do and not to be as a father and now, when I hold my child in my arms for the first time… I will learn more and more everyday about exactly what I should do.
