Let me begin by stating who I think might get something out of these silly little posts. Men. Not just any men, mind you, but men who have had little to do with babies. Men who have seen and occasionally been close to babies but have never held or really played with them.
It’s okay, I know the truth. You like babies. Really. You avoided them because you were nervous or because you felt you knew too little and might do something wrong or incorrectly. Your apprehension came from your lack of familiarity with tiny humans.
I know this because I did this. I’m not just the president, I’m also a member.
My hope with this blog is to share a little bit of insight I have gained from becoming a father. I am not claiming any special knowledge other than having a baby (now age four years). I interact and care for her every day and my hope is by sharing what I have learned that maybe I can either help or entertain one of you. Just one.
So my first piece of advice: stop worrying. You are going to get a lot of things wrong. This is not the end of the world. Unless you find yourself in the wilds of Finland attempting to train your genetically engineered daughter to become the perfect assassin you will most likely have friends and family nearby who will offer a steady stream of help and advice. Most often you will not want any of it but it will keep coming.
Chances are if you are stumped about something and it’s not life and death (choking would be a good example of this – slapping on the back is fairly effective here) go with your gut. Usually that means not giving/doing the thing that your child wants.
Otherwise I am not sure if you will find much to your liking here. I tend to get long winded with explanations. I’ll do my best to keep things light and not bore you to tears. I will also try and offer a condensed version at the beginning of each post for those of you who do not like to read. It’s the Internet, admit it, you don’t want to read a wall of text.
John Ryan Sullivan 