My daughter is now 6’3″ at sixteen years old. While she spent this weekend in Atlanta playing in a volleyball tournament, I’ll always think of her as the person who has changed me the most. The thought of having kids before one has kids is an intimidating thing. I didn’t feel adequate or complete as a person, I didn’t know if I would be glad that I had kids, I didn’t know if I would rise up and be the kind of great parent I had. All of that disappeared once my daughter came along.
It’s like a little switch is flipped inside your person. You have a baby, and life quickly (perhaps, instantly) prioritizes itself. Going from being single to married is a big shift, but even when we get married, we’re dealing with an adult mind, a peer, a partner. But a baby is none of those things. A baby changes you into someone who is bigger because you have to be bigger, is selfless because you have to be selfless.
But the thing I like most about being a parent are the little moments humor that kids create just by being kids, like when they blow their loose tooth in and out like it was a rickety shutter unhinged from a dilapidated house.