just got back from a really good evening meeting up with some of the dads from the dads 2 b parenting classes which i went to before gethin was born. it was interesting to see what obstacles each of us had faced in our first days/weeks/months as fathers and how we were getting on with our wee bundles of joy.
surprisingly all four of us which went had had pretty traumatic birth experiences – well, at least our partners had! yet all had healthy and happy boys, gethin the eldest of the bunch.
it was quite a reflective experience, thinking back to the classes preparing us for the times ahead and what good grounding they proved to be. saying that it was perhaps the first time, certainly in a long time, that i had openly talked about gethin’s birth and the hectic weeks which followed with their ups and downs. i still feel that i am lacking in confidence with gethin, from handling him to interacting with him and engaging him. i still feel that at any moment he might stop breathing or that somehow i might, through my own clumsiness, bring him some harm. silly thoughts but quite profound ones when i sit back and think that these thoughts inform how i hold gethin, how i play with him and talk with him.
tonight has certainly helped bring these thoughts to the fore once again and once i got back, i enjoyed a really good chat with peta chatting, perhaps for the first time, about us as parents, where we think we are going wrong (and right), and what we want for our son in the coming months and years. it is infuriating that for both of us the thought of financial security is utmost and i suppose it is quite natural for a parent to want to be able to provide everything their child might want or, at the very least, need. but then a part of me is reconciled that at this moment in time we three have a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, a half-full tin of sma gold and some beautiful neighbours to boot. and i think to myself that you cannot put a price on the memories that such environs will bring as gethin grows up.
This here blog is in honour of the esteemed Gethin William Albert Henley Esq, 5162 days old, who was born on 3rd April 2006 at 18:04 weighing a healthy 9lb 11½oz.
Daddy Cole is enjoying a career as a web developer whilst mummy Peta is juggling working part-time with being an all-round top mum
Comments:
brenda said on Wednesday, 16th August 2006
well said cole, memories are priceless and can never be replaced, so treasure every one of them.