Either we are not as prepared to handle children as we might think or something else it at work but I imagine something like this is more common than we think. Although our childrens' births were...
Either we are not as prepared to handle children as we might think or something else it at work but I imagine something like this is more common than we think.
Although our childrens' births were incredibly eventful there weren't any particular lasting effects from those events at least. What did seem to have the greatest effect on me was the first year of life and associated firsts in regards to typical illnesses. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I was different after that first year. The stress of not necessarily knowing what to do about a fever or a cough or a child who wouldn't sleep. As well as the stress of not knowing how things would resolve changed my brain in some fundamental way.
Even with subsequent children the effects of that first year did not subside, to this day getting a text or a call that one of the kids has a fever or is throwing up elevates my heart rate like nothing else. It destroys any sense of productivity that day that my wife has started holding off the bad news until the end of the day or even until I come home and breaks it to me as uneventfully as she can. It's subsided a bit as the years have gone and and the kids have gotten older but I think it's something I'll live with for the rest of my life. Guess it's just one of the side effects of parenting.
Either we are not as prepared to handle children as we might think or something else it at work but I imagine something like this is more common than we think.
Although our childrens' births were incredibly eventful there weren't any particular lasting effects from those events at least. What did seem to have the greatest effect on me was the first year of life and associated firsts in regards to typical illnesses. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I was different after that first year. The stress of not necessarily knowing what to do about a fever or a cough or a child who wouldn't sleep. As well as the stress of not knowing how things would resolve changed my brain in some fundamental way.
Even with subsequent children the effects of that first year did not subside, to this day getting a text or a call that one of the kids has a fever or is throwing up elevates my heart rate like nothing else. It destroys any sense of productivity that day that my wife has started holding off the bad news until the end of the day or even until I come home and breaks it to me as uneventfully as she can. It's subsided a bit as the years have gone and and the kids have gotten older but I think it's something I'll live with for the rest of my life. Guess it's just one of the side effects of parenting.