I know that my father loves me deeply and unconditionally. Not many dads do. Like many, if not most fathers of his generation, my dad was not an I love you type of guy. He would say it back to me occasionally if I said it first but the whole process made him uncomfortable. As a child, I hated him for this. As an adult, I realize now that he was a product of the way his father had treated him, and the way my grandfather was treated by his father.
Love escalates. The longer you look back at the relationships between fathers and their children, the less amount of outward love you can see expressed. How much time do you think your great-great-grandfather spent telling his kids he loved them? I imagine that the Great Depression probably stripped them of their pride and tenderness and they rarely, if ever, locked eyes with their child, held them by the hand, and said I love you so much!
The world has obviously changed quite a bit and plenty of time could be spent debating whether it is for better or worse. Some would say that times were so much simpler back then.
My theory of escalating love gives me great hope when I look at the world around me. Regardless of what terrible things are reported in the papers or on the news at night, I know that like many fathers of this generation, I am an I love you type of guy. The friends I have are also quick to tell their children they love them. I see it at the malls and in the park, too.
When I was growing up, there were never any fathers at the park. Not anymore, my friend. Dads go to parks these days and while we are at the parks we play and we play hard. We love hard. We are the first generation of I love you dads. Our children will be the first generation to grow up en masse in this environment and the love we share with our children today will escalate upward to their children and so on.
Pretty neat, huh? My son, Jackson, was born on September 27, Like me, he was born at four-thirty in the afternoon. Like me, he was also two and a half months premature.
You can call it cosmic, you can call it coincidence. I call it misery. There is nothing like spending a month in the neonatal intensive care unit at your local hospital. I was much sicker as a newborn than Jackie was. Jackie had no illnesses; he just arrived very early. Also unlike me, he arrived via C-section. I was in the delivery room to witness the birth. I was a vaginal birth and what they call breech, which means feet first.
Not only was I myself early, but I also set the tone for my childhood early. The first memory anyone has of me is my asshole. I always knew how to make an entrance. A C-section is a bizarre thing to witness.
I have never seen a vaginal birth, so I have nothing to compare it to, but the entire thing seemed pretty anticlimactic. It was a bit like pulling a sea bass out of the ocean. The doctor made a neat incision across the belly and after some rooting around, Jackie breached the skin line. He looked like an Olympic swimmer. His right arm and head came out simultaneously as if he were taking a breath during the freestyle relay.
My boy was covered in blood and a film of white custard. If you are a father then you will believe me that it was the single most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life. It was life! God made man and I made my child. The room faded away around me. I was stunned by the sight of him. He looked like everyone I had ever known. He looked like my father. He looked like his parents and our parents and all the cousins we ever had.
For months I had wondered what my child would look like. I spent days musing over whether he would have blond hair or brown or red. I wondered what his facial structure would be. Would he have a button nose? How big a chin would he have? As I watched television during the pregnancy, my mind would wander after particular faces appeared. Would he look like that guy? How about him? I rolled every composite imaginable around in my head, anticipating his birth. When he was born, I would finally be able to put a face to the name.
I have spoken with other fathers about this, and it seems to be a common thought. My son looked like himself. The first and only boy of his kind.
There is a tender and almost ethereal moment when, after looking at your newborn child, you realize he actually looks familiar. Everything I am describing to you took place in a matter of three, maybe four seconds. It seemed like I stood staring at my son with everyone else frozen around us for hours and hours. I will remember and cherish the memory of that moment for the rest of my life, so in the end I guess it lasted much longer than hours and hours.
I heard the doctor quietly instructing another doctor and some nurses as to what to do next and where to do it. I heard many voices and the hum of the machines in the delivery room.
I heard my own heart beat in my head. The omission of his cries, however, was deafening. Hardcover , pages. More Details Other Editions 8. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. Sort order. Jan 03, Katherine P rated it it was ok Shelves: non-fiction-read , Parts of this book are really good - there are a number of laugh out loud parts and even a few that brought tears to my eyes. That being said there is a LOT of directionless rambling. In many chapters he seems to contradict himself and his point is unclear.
It's really too bad because his rambling chapters on spanking and safety overshadow his funny honest chapters on step-parenting and infertility. Definitely wouldn't buy or highly recommend. It'd be okay if you have time to kill and want somet Parts of this book are really good - there are a number of laugh out loud parts and even a few that brought tears to my eyes.
It'd be okay if you have time to kill and want something funny to read that you can skim. May 29, Molly Ferguson rated it liked it. The funny moments were really funny! This book really needed a better editor though, and that drove me nuts. He kept switching from his stand-up voice to his memoir voice and getting all wistful and sappy. The stories about his son were all jumbled chronologically. However, the parenting insights in the first half were terrific.
Aug 14, Jaime rated it it was amazing Recommended to Jaime by: jaimeleigh cox. A great book for parents with a sense of humor. I read this, by myself, cackling loudly through the whole thing. Good thing I wasn't in public, people would have thought I was nuts.
It's that funny. But his love of being a parent truly shines through. Jun 09, George Huner rated it really liked it. Really enjoyed this book. Funny, insightful, you can tell he really enjoys being a dad.
I feel the same as him, that raising your kids is the best life imaginable. Jul 28, Jodi rated it it was ok. Some parts were really funny, but had hard time with the language in this book.
I am no saint and this was way over the top for me. Very hard time reading this. Jan 03, Alice rated it it was ok. He talked about being a parent and I didn't think it was funny. I've heard this guy do standup and had good expectations for the book. I was bored. I am not sure what I expected when I started reading this book That isn't what I got. To be fair to Mr. Mohr, I just couldn't relate top some of his stories. There were some stories I could relate to and some which made me laugh outloud.
Just enough, in fact, to keep me reading. Because of this, I think it is fair to give the book three stars and a slight recommendation to someone getting ready to have the I am not sure what I expected when I started reading this book Because of this, I think it is fair to give the book three stars and a slight recommendation to someone getting ready to have their first boy baby.
Apr 16, Sharon Falduto added it. Yeah, that Jay Mohr, wrote a memoir about his son that was really more sappy than I would have expected. Oct 28, Jonathan Sparkles rated it really liked it.
Internal processing of your order will take about business days. Please allow an additional business days for Media Mail delivery. List this Seller's Books. Payment Methods accepted by seller. AbeBooks Bookseller Since: April 6, Snip Snip Hoorag. Stepparenting Sucks.
The Birds and the Bees. My Lousy Swimmers. The GoxMohr Proust Questionnaire. No Wonder My Parents Drank. Droits d'auteur.
0コメント