It's difficult too

Perhaps I should start with how difficult parenting is, because that's half of it. This perspective is partly inspired by my wife, Anne, who when I first proposed this project reminded me that parenting is wonderful, yes, but difficult, too; and partly by the incident related below.

Just the other day my daughter, Lilly, and I were up in the middle of the night watching her new favorite movie, Marley & Me. Even though Lilly is only 21 mos. old, she does watch the occasional movie (more about this later); and she loves dogs. So when she couldn't sleep because of a cold, and when Anne had had enough, and when I tried to find any which way to keep Lilly from crying, hysterically, wanting "MAMA," it was "Mauley" who consoled her.

We snuggled up in the extra bedroom with my laptop and watched most of the movie, before Lilly fell asleep, reclined against her pillow. I shut the laptop and, after a much needed toilet run, climbed under the covers next to her.

You might hear that parenting is hard; especially during the 9 or so months before birth. This often comes from someone older--a parent, a grandparent, a so-called friend of the family--or even from other parents, eager to offer their advice. Well, to me, this doesn't quite capture it fully; it even seems like a cliche. Hard, difficult, whatever. It seems like someone should go into exactly what makes parenting so difficult.

Of course it's different for everyone, and I'm not about to sum it up here in a blog post. But let's say for now, for me, it has to do with that indescribable feeling, that something about fatherhood I want to explore in this blog.

The above story serves here as an incident on which to reflect; an example, I believe, from which all those feelings that I have for my daughter can be elaborated; a place to start, so to speak, to narrate the on-going process of my fatherhood. But before I explore that "Whole new kind of love!" I was warned of, that ever-expanding love I have for my daughter, I'll start with some of the difficult things about being a parent.

Coming soon.