TigerBlog has been a father for a little more than 23 years now.
Before he gets to that, he has a story from his last few hours before he became a parent for the first time. It was around 3 am, a few hours before TigerBlog Jr. made his first appearance. It was time to head to the hospital, and when TB went to close the garage door, he caught one of his fingers between the pieces that snap together as the door shuts.
It hurt. A lot.
What TB learned is that in a maternity ward, nobody cares about a dad's finger, no matter how swollen it got. There was just no sympathy coming his way.
What the heck?
Even laundry with a baby isn't easy.
When you do your laundry, you have big pants, big shirts, big socks. You get the idea. With a baby, you have to fold five onesies for every one of your own t-shirts, and there is no shortage of onesies to wash when you have babies.
TigerBlog had never changed a diaper before he had children. He thinks it took him around 20 minutes to do it the first time, and then about 20 seconds for that diaper to fall off.
By the time he was done, he could change a baby in less than 30 seconds. He had it down to a science.
TB was thinking about what it was like to have little kids yesterday, which happened to be Fathers' Day. He thought about his Princeton colleagues who have their own little kids, and what it's been like for them the last few months.
For those who have grammar school kids, it's been a spring of home schooling, and that couldn't have been easy. For those who have pre-school kids, it was sort of business as usual, minus any kind of child care, which always made for at least a bit of a respite once kids were old enough.
And those who have both? Bless their saintly souls.
TB is glad he never found himself in that situation. He also hopes that it doesn't happen ever again for anyone.
For TB, Fathers' Day 2020 featured a trip to the beach with his daughter, Miss TigerBlog ’22. It's both of their favorite places, or at least one of their favorites, along with lacrosse fields and Broadway theaters.
To get on the beach, by the way, they had to log on to a website at 7 am to grab one of 500 day passes made available.
As they sat there, they happened to pick a spot that was surrounded by little kids. It made TB nostalgic for the days when his own kids were young and they'd go to the beach.
These little kids had boundless energy, and they had parents who didn't. It's a mismatch really, as the parents are just hoping to bring back the same number of kids they brought, even if it's not necessarily the ones they came with (just kidding about that part).
MTB spent most of her time stretched out on a blanket, or in the water. She required no supervision, which allowed TigerBlog to do what he loves, which is to sit in a beach chair, look out at the water, smell the salty air, put his feet in the ocean.
And, of course, reflect. On this day, the main topic was, appropriately enough, fatherhood. Being a father is an amazing thing.
There have been a lot of ups, a
few downs (TBJ lost three retainers within two months, for instance) and
a whole lot of pride.
His daughter is a member of the Princeton women's lacrosse team. As with every Princeton athlete, she took her own road to becoming a Tiger. In her case, that included her first school experience at the U-League Nursery School, which is across the street from the Jadwin Gym parking lot.
As like any other father of any other Princeton athlete, TB takes a great deal of pride in seeing his daughter compete here. And to have the experience she's having.
TB saw the social media posts from the various Princeton teams wishing all the Tiger dads a Happy Fathers' Day. They were sweet and they were cute, but for TB, they were something much deeper.
He can relate first hand to what it means to be one of those Tiger dads, and it is amazing.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment