My First Year as a Father

You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway.

- Robert Brault

What can I say being a father is the most amazing experience anyone could possibly ask for. It is the most difficult, challenging, rewarding, emotional, and spiritual journey anyone could be lucky enough to experience. It's amazing how, as I watch my son learn and grow I can't help but feel that I am also learning just as much as he is. Patience, persistence, and determination have an entirely new meaning to me. My son's efforts to learn and grow know no boundary, he fears no limits, and no matter how many times he falls he always gets back up and tries again. I have come to realize that these amazing qualities through many years of experience become dull. But my son has renewed a completely self affirming belief within me that I too can accomplish anything I put my mind to.

My son has brought a harmony to my life that would otherwise be missing if he was not here. Despite the struggles my life has been rewired for the better because of these experiences. It saddens me to think of parents who skip out on their children early on, or the parents who don't fully appreciate what they have. I have heard many people complain about their children, or how they were going to do this or that, but once their child was born they ran out of time. Excuses, these are complete excuses. And before my son was born I was told how, you won't have time for your website, or my photography, friends, writing, etc... I heard everything under the sun, and I didn't believe them then and I don't believe them now.

My son has instilled in me a sense of regiment, timing, and planning; that otherwise without him I never would have. I won't lie and tell you that I have not had to make sacrifices, or miss out on some good times. But as a father everything just seems right when I am with my son, and I don't feel the need to feel my time with endless activities. I have cut everything down to the basics, and I focus on quality over quantity now. Happy hours, bar hopping on the weekends, sleeping in late on Saturdays; while I do miss these things on occasion, my wife and I make some time on special occasions to experience these things again. But there is nothing better than waking up and seeing my son who adores everything I do yell 'Daddy' as walk towards his crib each morning. No matter how many times I wake up, go to work, or leave a room I am always greeted the same way each time. It's as if each time my son sees me, it's the first time we have seen each other in years.

I have come to realize that babies and young children never take any moments for granted. We are their world, and when we are with them nothing else matters. They completely let their love for us flow out of them unconditionally. It is contagious and awe inspiring. A miracle of nature. It is the true definition of love, and it defines why we live. Our children wear their hearts on their sleeves, and all they ask in return is that we do the same. Their is no great secret to parenting; just love your children as much as they love you, and everything else will fall into place.

Thank you Robby for changing both mine and your mothers life forever.

- Robby Silk

JournalRobby SilkNovember 30, 2012Robert Brault, My First Year as a FatherComment