I’m Going to Be a Dad

I’m still not used to the idea of having a baby. Even though we’ve started telling every random stranger we can, it still seems barely real. Even though our parents bought some early, gender-neutral baby clothes, it still doesn’t seem real.

I keep trying to imagine our house with a kid in it, and it just doesn’t happen. Usually I just start thinking about how small our house is and how toys everywhere won’t help. I think about what kind of furniture we’ll need and whether or not we can afford any of this.


Never mind the bigger issues like actually raising a kid. The other day while talking with my mom I was expressing a rather simple-minded philosophy, suggesting that a good talk was what a certain teenager really needed. My mom did a good job at stiffling her laugh. What do I know about raising teenagers? Later that day I realized how silly I must have sounded.

Some days I think my kids will be mortified of me, and some days I relish that role.

I hate to think about what a kid will think of this. I hate to think about all the stupid things I’ve said, the contradictory ideas and the just plain weird stuff. It’s not that I’d take any of it back, it’s just a bit odd having a detailed, daily collection of your thoughts for several years available to your children and the general public. I suppose that’s something I won’t have to worry about for a while, but it’ll come sooner than I think.

3 thoughts on “I’m Going to Be a Dad”

  1. congratulations! your life will become richer. You will not remember what life was like before children and you will wonder what you did with all your time. You will also adapt. You have in your head all the software needed to raise children and teenagers and it will be activated at the right time.

  2. The squeal of expectancy

    Kevin Hendricks has a funny little post about the different reactions teenage girls and teenage boys have to their youth pastor (that is, Hendricks himself) announcing that his wife is preggers. This was my favorite line:

    One girl even heard the squea…

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