"Close your eyes
Have no fear
The monster's gone
He's on the run and your daddy's here"
-- John Lennon, Beautiful Boy
If you haven't figured it out yet, I title each blog post with a snippet of a song lyric that somehow relates to my topic. Sometimes it works out better than others, but I think this week's is pretty on target.
See, I've been giving a lot of thought to what it means to be a parent recently. Although our twins are now 8 months old, it's only recently that we had our first serious illness. Griffin came down with an ear and sinus infection, recently that threw us for a loop. Now, I'm sure for you experienced parents, you'll laugh at us for thinking that's a "serious" illness and I'm sure you're right. I'm also sure we'll have much more serious issues to deal with in the coming years that will make this seem trivial.
For us, however, seeing how miserable Griffin was, how he couldn't sleep or get comfortable or understand why he was hurting killed us inside. Of course, there's no way for us to comfort him, get him a treat or let him watch TV to take the edge off. No way for explain to him that it will pass, or why he has to take the medication to get better.
Which made me realize that you don't become a parent/father/mother when your kid(s) are born. Sure, technically it's true -- but at that point you're looking for 10 fingers and toes, and a healthy kid. If you get that, you're golden and feeling pretty good about it. In reality, it isn't until you deal with something like an illness, that you start to understand what it means to be a parent. Our kids were premature and in the NICU, but only for a short time and always seemed to get better and better. Plus we had plenty of help from the NICU nurses (who, by the way, don't get near enough credit for the great work they do.)
Dealing with an infant illness at home is a whole different thing. Frankly, it is just about as helpless as you can feel.
Luckily for us, it wasn't a huge deal, he's on the mend and if you've met Griffin you know he's a pretty resilient and happy kid -- there were time's when he felt absolutely miserable, but was still letting out big belly laughs as he played. We're truly blessed.
Out of curiosity, I pulled the definition of "Parent" from dictionary.com Eight months in, I can tell you this order is out of whack -- protector/guardian is way more important than just #4. They just don't know it yet.
1. a father or a mother.
2. an ancestor, precursor, or progenitor.
3. a source, origin, or cause.
4. a protector or guardian.
5. Biology . any organism that produces or generates another.
PS: On an unrelated note, I think it's interesting that infant medications come in bubblegum flavor -- something that an infant would (should) never have tasted -- Anyone know why that is, I'd have expected a fruit flavor like banana or apple.
No comments:
Post a Comment