Survival of the Fittest

One of the earliest things that hit me when my wife was breast-feeding was far from what I expected.

Same thing goes for dads, too.
Same thing goes for dads, too.

Instead of being a normal, pervy-kind of guy my instincts had adjusted. I don’t know if that is what happens with fatherhood or not – it’s far too early to tell.

While staring at a shot of side boob, I found myself thinking It is our job as parents to keep this child alive.

Unlike the rest of the animal kingdom we don’t have to worry about carnivorous predators lurking around every corner, wanting to turn our child into a meal. Although, with a daughter now, you’re damned right I am worried about Predators … that’s a scary 80’s movie for a child.

The whole point of parenthood is to keep your baby alive.

That’s why we wake up at 3 a.m. for feedings or why we buy foam padding for our fireplaces. Sure, we don’t want to deal with the crying that would come with either of those two results if we didn’t take the correct preventative measures, but deep down there is that parental instinct to ensure your child keeps breathing.

It’s why we research products before we buy them (or, at least, why I do). You’re not going to brag about the differences between the A6 Turbo Insta-Lock Car Seat and the regular-ass Costco brand, but if one gets four stars and one gets two, you’re going to buy the four-star car seat. You want to protect your child; hence you want to keep your child alive.

It’s why I’m extra careful with her around our dogs. So far all they’ve done is lick her, but if one tries to go all Walking Dead on her and eat her face, I’m worried about potential death. A sizable scar would save me headaches when she wants to start dating, but I don’t want my kid to die. Same reason I worry about her launching herself out of the crib. If she loses an arm in the process, it makes it easy when she’s older because no high school boy wants to date a cripple, but I don’t want her smashing her brains inside out.

It’s funny how your thought process changes. I had just wanted my kid to grow up so I could play with her and speak to her and teach her things. Now I want her to grow up so my job of keeping her alive would fall onto her own shoulders.


Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s