[SAHD] What I Learned From My Baby

Courtesy science-essentials.org

The title gives you a clue as to why I haven't posted in a while.

Not long ago in a place not far from where I live, my baby daughter was born.  As events sometimes go, I am now a stay-at-home dad (and no, I have not seen "Mr. Mom").  This prompted me to start a new element of this blog  (hence the acronym in the title).  I toyed with the idea of starting a new blog for the parenting stuff, but figured to stick with this one (although that may change in the future).

I had heard it said that parents learn as much from their children as their children learn from them.  A thought I did not fully understand until I had one of my own.  Here are a few of the lessons I have learned so far.

Realize Your Helplessness

In the Bible, God refers to Himself as our Father.  This name is not so much a means of depicting His gender, but more as a means of clarifying roles.  God takes care of us, and we get taken care of by Him. The main lesson I learned in this area is our utter helplessness without God.  My daughter is completely helpless, she cannot clothe herself, bathe herself, or feed herself.  She even occasionally has difficulty passing gas.  Such is the state of humanity without God's care.  We often deceive ourselves with delusions of self-sufficiency. We would have a much better life if we would let go of this delusion and let God be in control of our lives

Correct Communication is Crucial

Like many infants, my daughter has a very limited vocabulary, which makes understanding what she wants/needs quite challenging.  When she starts crying I often find myself playing a somewhat stressful guessing game.  If only she could tell me right away her need then everyone would be happier.  However, this is not possible given her limited skill set.  In the same way, we have to be understanding of other people if they don't communicate exactly the way we would like them to communicate.  Many people (both male and female) simply lack proper communication skills.  We need to be patient and do our best to understand what they are attempting to tell us.

Don't be Counterproductive

This one goes right along with the previous item because many times since I do not know what my daughter wants, she does not get fed exactly on her preferred time table.  Many times when this happens she will often gain such momentum with her crying that even though the food is there for the taking, she would rather cry than take it, which, of course, makes her more hungry which makes her more angry.  Too often I have to get her to calm down so that she can eat the food she so desperately wants.  How many times do we get so involved in our complaining that we waste valuable time and energy that could have been used to actually accomplish our goals?

So that's it for now.  I'm sure there will be more lessons in the future, so stay tuned.  In the mean time, what lessons have you learned from your (or other people's) children?