This week's picture is a picture of my grandpa, my dad and me. I was all of probably a few days old in this picture, and my father looks very young. My grandpa looks exactly as I remember him. What has prompted me to post this picture is I have come to the stark realization that I have pretty much zero chance of carrying on the family name. This is not an important thing to me in the slightest, but it gave me pause nonetheless. As the parent of only one child (and one increasingly likely to stay that way) and with that child being a girl, the name ends with me. So I guess it's up to my brother and his wife to start having boys.
All in all, I am so glad that I have a daughter. I have no doubt that I would have loved a son as much as I love Anna, but for some reason, I feel like a very good dad to a daughter. Our doctor and family friend where we used to live told me that men like me need to have daughters, and I forget her reasoning now, but she equated me to her husband, who is also very much like me in many ways, but also not in many ways as well. I love having a little girl as I don't think there's anything quite like a daughter's love for her father. I'm sure that there will come a time when I stop being the coolest dad ever and become the biggest embarrassment on the planet to her, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I sometimes think I would have been a poor father to a son as I'm not at all athletic - so much so that I don't even pretend to like sports and really don't even attempt them anymore (as opposed to what I did in college.) I know there's more to boys than athletics (I mean, look at me for proof positive of that) but you know what I mean.
Being the parent of one child is also an interesting experience - because she is the only one, I feel very acutely in tune with her needs. I remember the old Bill Cosby routine where he says that parents of one child are not really parents at all - if something breaks, you know who did it. While I realize it was a comedy routine, it was still one of those things that makes you think. I'm amazed by parents of more than one child. I'm in awe of how they manage it. Some days, one child combined with every other aspect of my life completely exhausts me. A lady I used to work with said that one child is heaven, two children is also fine because there's one for each parent, but three children is total anarchy. We had three kids in my family, sometimes, I don't know how my parents did it.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I love my kid so much.
3 comments:
Being the parent of two great kids, one boy and one girl, I have to say that each kid polarizes to one parent more than the other. And that's okay...I'm closer to my daughter too, maybe because I'm just cool like that (for now anyway!) or maybe because I took care of her during the day and worked nights when she was little. Nevertheless, I love both very much; they are so different...like the cliched "night and day" but it's true. My daughter has caught the music bug, so I have passed that along to her...yay!
Since my daughter was first, I too, had pause about the family line and all that garbage. For a while, I was comforted by the possibility that maybe "the line" would end with me. But after my son's birth, I haven't had that thought until reading your post today. :)
We all need to do more posts about our kids. They're worth it! :)
BTW, great 3-generation pic. Very 70's, which it was, but a nice pic nonetheless! :) I have some pics of my "babyhood" in the 70's where the color is all faded out.
Dan..Brain Callahan here..i feel what you mean but in truth i dont feel as though not passing my name on would bother me..the genes of which i am composed are very successful and plenty of other people have the same DNA sequences and in the future if these sequnces are deemed unimportant then the sequences will become dormint of be lost..such is evolution..we are mearly expressions of proteins and that which is important to us in our lives, we assign ourselves.. as for a name...those change, forcefully or by surrender, are modified, loose parts and gain others..you should know that with the evolution of you oun family name....as for me having kids is half about the fun of having them and half about the fun of making them....dont let anyone tell you that their family name is so important...because in the great scheem of things..no one is that important.. and also..we love anna so much...seacrest out..
I'm not sure I could top that last comment! Very wisely put, especially for my kid brother. ;)
D
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