I was recently sharing this embarrassing story with my children as an example of where learning about child rearing takes time and schooling (classes, books, family and friends.) It is something you need to learn.
In my case, the transition from BC (Before Children) to parenting occurred gradually. Sure, I was at the conception. As the pregnancy went on, my wife had pre-eclampsia (called toxemia in the dark ages), and spent the last month of her pregnancy lying on her left side to help with elevated blood pressure. Our lives went from being fairly active to sedentary, and we watched many entertainment videos to pass the time.
The childbirth was uneventful and baby and mom were fine. We were very excited with the baby we created and looked forward to our new roles as parents.
One night, shortly after we got home from the hospital, found us preparing dinner at home. My wife and I put the baby to bed for the night, went downstairs and had a nice dinner. We then decided we had to run over to a local store.
We both hopped in the car, and off we went. We drove out of the driveway and into the street, and came to a dead stop.
“Oh my God, the baby is upstairs. We can’t do this!”
It was right then and there the magnitude of our new responsibilities hit me…and hard.
Thankfully, our learning experience did not cause a problem. However, it was the wake up message we needed around our new responsibilities and we never repeated the same mistake.
It was scary to think about how close we came to a really bad situation.
When did it hit you parenting was your new role?