My first child was a boy and I couldn’t have been more excited. I had always had a very close bond with my father and I couldn’t wait to do all the things with my son that I had done with my dad. Fishing, Baseball, Hockey and all the other guy stuff that were going to do together, the possibilities were endless.
For the first couple of years, everything was going according to plan. I bought my son mini hockey sticks, sports clothes and Hot Wheels, even though he may not have been ready for them yet. When my wife got pregnant with our second child, I started planning the baseball team!
Then something strange happened. The nurse told us we were having a girl and panic set in almost immediately.
Let me explain. It’s not that I wasn’t excited at the prospect of having a daughter. You see, my family had a tradition curse to uphold and I was going to be the one credited with ending it, which terrified me. There hadn’t been a girl born to my father’s side of the family in OVER 80 years.
Do you have any idea how long 80 years is? Let me help you out with that, it’s a long time! Now let’s do the math: My grandfather had 4 boys and 3 of them had 2 boys each. Then 2 of those boys had a boy each and you see where I’m headed. They might as well have told me we were having a Gremlin or a Unicorn because that’s how unbelievable it was. (Note: I’m not saying that Unicorns aren’t real, I’ve just never seen one).
That should help explain the panicked feelings I was having over the news that I would be welcoming a little girl into a world that was previously overrun by men. It’s hard enough, as a man, to understand the needs of a woman but this was a whole new ball game! It felt like I was going to have to learn parenting all over again, from scratch.
Well, I’m happy to report that not only was I completely wrong about my pre-conceived notions on baby girls, but it has been one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. I knew from the moment she was born and they put that little pink hat on her, that things would never be the same…but in a totally amazing way!
What I thought was going to be an emasculating experience filled with pink purses, tiaras and tea parties, has actually turned into one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. Two years in and I find myself falling more and more into the palm of her tiny hand every single day. I actually got overly excited the other day when I found out that there was a new Tinkerbell movie coming out.
As it turns out, I love the tea parties and princesses and dollies and dresses and oh sorry, well you get the point. It’s not that I was an overly manly man before either. I don’t know how to fix a car, I cry during Rudy and The Rookie and I know nothing about installing drywall. In fact, these days I’d much rather snuggle up with my daughter as we watch Tangled for the 100th time, than hang out at the bar for the hockey game.
I guess if you’re looking for a message here, it would be that everything isn’t always as it seems. My little girl has changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. With a simple look, I melt into her hands and that doesn’t bother me in the least. I am father to a Daddy’s Little Girl and I’ve never been happier in my entire life.
Cheers!
