A month ago I sent out a tweet asking for topics to write about here, and my good friend Nathan Verrill (twitter) suggested the following.

So here we go:

My son is going to born in roughly 3 months and there is so much going through my head on how my life is about to change. The fact that we are going to have a son was a relief for me, I just don’t feel like I am ready to have a daughter yet. People tell me that raising a boy or a girl is fundamentally the same, but I call bullshit. Raising a girl requires more emotional maturity than raising a boy in my opinion, which I simply don’t have at this stage in my life.

Questions like what type of father I want to be, what lessons do I want to make sure I teach my child, and how will I find the right balance between providing for my family and spending time with my family keep coming up in my mind. These are not easy to answer, and a real ‘answer’ doesn’t exist. The best thing would be to use these questions as checkpoints throughout this adventure that is parenting. If ever I am not happy with the answers that I give, I will know it is time to try something new.

For the first year of my child’s life I just want to soak everything in and help my wife out as much as I can. The two goals I have set are to attempt to teach my son how to entertain himself and some semblance of independence. I know it sounds harsh to want an infant to be independent, but I don’t really expect him to be walking around warming up his own bottle. However, having a sense of self-relience even at a young age will go a long way as my son grows up. I know this next year and three months is going to be quite a trip, and it will be interesting to see what my Year Two post will have to say.