“Leave Room for Jesus!”
That’s my favorite saying when I see underage boys and girls hugging or kissing, or if I’m chaperoning a dance. Man… I just realized, I’ve chaperoned a dance. I say it cause it’s funny. Not even remotely do I believe that boys and girls should actually be leaving room for Jesus… or do I? Well to start off, if I did believe that, it definitely wouldn’t be in the physical sense of two young budding lovers, hugging up on each other–although the older I get, the more unnecessary I think the act of youth intimacy is. But what about leaving room for Jesus in your mind, your heart, or your soul? Should there be room for Jesus there? Should I introduce my son to the idea of religion? Controversy! Well let me give you my background story. I’ve mentioned before that I frequented the south to visit my dad’s side of the family. Well in the south you go to church at least 4 times a week… maybe even 2 to 3 of those times actually being on Sunday. Yes… the stereotypes are true and that’s why people joke about it. There’s the obvious Sunday mass… but sometimes you go to the 5 p.m. mass, after you’ve already attended the 7 or 8 a.m. service. Bible study on Sunday mornings. Choir practice on Thursdays. You have to go for adult choir practice too because your aunt or parent is in the choir… or maybe your cousin plays piano and organ… (and make sure Continue Reading →
Posted in Fear, Getting Ready, Those Odd moments...with 7 comments.
The Heir To My Throne
My wife woke me up at 6:15 Saturday morning of the 10th of May… told me her water broke. In true fashion of myself, I woke up panic-less. And to paint even more of a picture of how calm things were, she gave me the option to go to back to sleep since she wasn’t feeling any types of contractions yet… but I couldn’t. Instead I got out of bed, started a load of laundry, did dishes, swept the house… yeah… I got shit done. Close to 3 hours went by, with a walk somewhere in between–and no contractions yet. Paps thought maybe we should go to the hospital at that point, and so it was time… time to meet the little man we’d been so anxiously waiting 9 months to see. When we arrived, they got her changed to “scope out the scene,” and come to find Paps hadn’t even been a whole centimeter dilated yet, but because her water had broke already they’d admitted us into a delivery room. A Cervidil drip was administered into her IV in place of Pitocin, which was supposed to thin her lady stuff down, in order for her to naturally start dilation. That was at 10 a.m. 11 p.m she was still not a full centimeter, so they were going to administer some more Cervidil and monitor her for another 12 hours, but instead decided to deliver Pitocin to the body. Pitocin, for those that don’t know, is supposed to induce labor at a Continue Reading →
Posted in Fear, Parenthood, The Puzzle Piecewith 5 comments.
Is Baby Bonding the Same as Love at First Sight?
According to science, we have 5 days left till the predicted due date. That’s roughly 120 hours, give or take a lifetime. So naturally I should be feeling some sort of way right about now. Well I do… … I feel uneasy. While I’ve been jumping through hoops these last few months to create this space to write about my thoughts, redecorate the house, establish the nursery, finish my Bachelors degree, apply for a Master’s program, pay off all the bills, make sure insurance and health issues are in order, and take care of preggo pants (the wife)– I haven’t really sat down and expressed my deepest fears with anyone. And since this blog is self-righteously named The Scared Dad, it’s time to address what I’m most scared of. I was talking to a friend today whom, like many, is anxiously awaiting the birth of my child. She and I go way back, and she and her husband had just had a child of their own. This child changed them, and changed their dynamic and brought out the best in them. Although I’ve seen this with my own eyes, I’m not saying this with my words or observation. Saying that their child brings out the best in them, is their own declaration. Both hubby and wife have rejoiced in the life of their child and have told me many times how much of a good thing the baby is to them both as individuals and as a family. Continue Reading →
Posted in Did He Really Just Say That?, Fearwith 8 comments.
A Round of Shots!
So naturally, as human kind would have it, we are constantly trying to scare the shit out of each other. Whether the scare takes form of a friend jumping from behind the corner in a dark hallway, telling stories to your younger siblings of the local boogie man, chain mail threatening you of 7-10 years of bad luck for not forwarding this email to everyone on the planet, or even the local bully threatening to beat you up after school (or PTA meeting)… scaring people is the sick and twisted form of entertainment we all are guilty of. Fear isn’t always so innocent though. We’re constantly put into fear from religion, politics, and science as well. Fear from religion forces us to act right in the eyes of our Gods. It forces us to take an internal look into our thought processes and form self-judgment calls before our final day comes, so we can make it into whatever afterlife we believe in. Fear from politics has us biting our nails about if my generation will receive the hard earned social security money we’ve worked for, or if our federal employees will get a paycheck at the end of the week because of government shut downs. Some of us fear that we can’t trust our government so much that we can’t live day to day without thinking we’re being watched, tracked, bugged, or put on some list that will inevitably have “the man” kicking down our door demanding to take away Continue Reading →
Posted in Fearwith 1 comment.
Child Care-less
Dear America, Why do you hate parents? Respectfully, Robert So I’ve mentioned before that I travel for work. I get to see all the glorious places that most will only see in post cards, and I get to eat all the glorious food that you only see on Food Network. I get to experience traditions and customs that you only see on the travel channel, but there is one thing I will never get to experience… Other countries’ benefits. That’s right Americans, we may be home of the free and proud and stuff, but we are definitely paying a price for that. And please don’t get me wrong… I didn’t serve 10 years in the Marine Corps so I could bash on the good ol’ U S of A in a blog post. This is specifically about child care. Once I found out about my wife being pregnant, I immediately started asking all the relevant questions… specifically those that pertain to work… 1) How does the insurance cover this birth? 2) If my wife has her own insurance, whose gets used for the hospital care? 3) Which insurance would the baby fall under? 4) Will I need paperwork from the job site in order to start the process? but most importantly, 5) How does the paternity leave work? (that link goes to a more credible source aka Huffington Post, if you don’t want to take my word for it) So here’s a real quick breakdown. What you need to understand Continue Reading →
Posted in Did He Really Just Say That?, Dissapointment, Fear, Getting Ready, Parenthood, Those Odd moments...with 32 comments.
