The Great Adventure!

When my wife and I brought our first son home from the hospital, all packed into the warm winter snugly fleece in his little car seat, I carried him into our apartment and placed him, still in the car seat, in the center of the kitchen floor ... very much like a bag of groceries. 

We stood there looking down at him.  I looked at my wife.  "Now what?"

Groceries, I know what to do with.  You unpack them and put them away.  An infant was a whole new and anxiety producing adventure for me.  My wife -- a pediatrician in training -- seemed a wee bit more confident, but not as much as I would have liked.

Although I had been working with children as a mental health professional for over 5 years, I had no direct parenting experience at all, had never changed a diaper in my entire life. I began rummaging through his bag of things.  Where is the owner's manual?  How do you turn this thing on, off; change its settings?

I had no idea ... none.

I'm sure there must be parents who are completely skilled and confident about parenting from the very start; people who transition seamlessly into parenting. However, I'm not one and I've never met one. For my self and the parents I know and have worked with, parenting is a struggle.     

© 2019 Kenneth H. Little. All rights reserved.