Becoming a New Dad, Again, After 17 Years - Families in the Loop

~By John Chatz, Writer, It?s Never Just Black and White

Seventeen years is a long time.? It?s certainly long enough to gain some perspective on fatherhood, particularly when you?re starting fresh like I am with a new baby girl after your fair share of experience. ?I have four children from my first marriage, ages 26, 23, 21, and 17, and my second wife and I welcomed our first child together, Sasha Petaja Chatz, on February 1?of this year.? If a revolution in diaper or stroller design has taken place in this interim, I?m in a perfect position to find out ? and tell you if it really beats the technology of the good old days.

Some of the demands of fathering an infant in the 21^st century have taken me by surprise, while other aspects have proved immune to the fickle winds of time.? As a parenting veteran turned rookie, to me everything old is truly new again.? Some of the new is really wonderful, and some, as I see it, should already be old news. ?Here?s where I stand on the progress we as a civilization have made on at least some aspects of the timeless art of parenting in the past 17 years.

The Good

I love the Diaper Genie?.? Thanks to this magical invention, I never have to smell dirty diapers again.? When a friend first told me of its existence, I bought one and assembled it as fast as I could and have never looked back.? Who is the guy or gal (Can I even use the word ?gal??) who invented this miraculous product?? If the genius behind the Diaper Genie? isn?t too busy levitating, I?d love to shake his or her hand.

Grandparenting doesn?t change over time.? Fortunately for Sasha and her grandparents, all four of them are still alive.? When they held Sasha for the first time, every one of them got the same look in their eyes that I still remember first seeing 26 years ago.

Having a new baby makes me want to have my other kids around me more.? Kids, of course, do grow up, and as they do they need a parent around less and less.? Sure, they call you to help them write a cover letter, file their taxes, or suggest restaurants.? But for my part, especially because my four older kids all live elsewhere, I find myself enjoying the moments we do have together more than ever.

Women are still tough as hell.? Supposedly the closest thing a man can experience to the pain of childbirth is a kidney stone.? I?ve had a kidney stone, and I know it doesn?t come close.? Plus, in addition to actually giving birth, a woman also has to walk around for nine months lugging another person around inside her.? I know I wouldn?t do it. ?If I did, I?d complain like a whiny little baby the whole time ? and force my wife to listen to me on the baby monitor.

The Bad

I hated baby monitors then and I hate them now.? Our new baby is as yet still in our bedroom, but eventually she will be moving down the hall and a monitor will inevitably follow her migration.? I ask you: Is it really necessary to listen to an infant?s every slurp, gurgle, and whimper when she?s just a room away?? I think not, but the purveyors of baby monitor propaganda disagree ? so much so that now my wife wants to buy a video baby monitor.? You don?t just get to hear the crying; you can see it too.? Oh, how I miss the good old days.

Glass bottles for formula just seem classier than their plastic counterparts.? When mom isn?t breastfeeding, formula has to be held by something.? Plastic bottles are nice, I guess, but if Coca-Cola? tastes better out of the now hard-to-come-by glass bottles, doesn?t it follow that milk does too?? When my 17-year-old son, Jesse, was born, I drank beer out of glass bottles and I do still.? Sasha is getting glass.

To me, monkeys are dirty, hairy animals who tear people?s faces off if given the opportunity, and I have never associated them with babies or cuteness.? Despite my anti-monkeyism, a number of manufacturers of infant clothes find it necessary to add monkey faces to baby shirts, pants, jackets, and onesies.? To these manufacturers I plead, please, keep the moneys in the zoo and off my baby?s butt.

Car seats are a pain in the rear.? They were then and they are now.? I know, you have to use them, but take it from me: They don?t grow on you with time.? Oddly enough, one thing that does is lack of sleep.? It just doesn?t bother me like it used to.

The Bizarre

For some incomprehensible reason, diapers now have color-based wetness indicators. ?So let me get this straight: Parents were unable to tell if a diaper was wet, so diaper manufacturers had to invent a stripe on the front of the diaper ? akin to a dipstick for a car engine ? that turns blue when baby has peed enough to require a change?? Call me old-fashioned, but what was wrong with touching the diaper to see if it felt moist or simply catching a whiff of that sour urine smell and then hopping to it?

Breastfeeding still freaks me out.? Watching a woman put a baby up to her breast and supply nourishment is, according to the lactation expert in residence at our hospital, ?the most normal function a mother could have.?? Something instinctually, however, tells me otherwise, and so I still find myself averting my eyes.

Where ever you are on the crazy path of parenting, whether it?s the first, second, or third time around, enjoy every second. ?It?s goes fast!

We got the cute pic from Strong Men Speak.

Source: http://familiesintheloop.com/new-and-noteworthy/6090/fatherhood-round-two/

the vow the voice season 2 ron paul maine safe house jay z and beyonce baby cpac powell