Last week, Mel listed the ten things she is most looking forward to about motherhood. She mentioned how she occasionally daydreams about the joyful times and events she will share with our future son or daughter. Well, I often daydream as well about the things I will do and experience with my future son or daughter and I do indeed have some things that I am really looking forward to doing and experiencing with him or her.
However, being a guy, the things I daydream about regarding fatherhood are obviously a bit different. Now I’m not the greatest “man’s man” that you’ll ever meet. I don’t fish or hunt very well, I can’t climb a tree, and I don’t really enjoy getting dirty. However, I do have some fun things both indoors and outdoors that I am looking forward to sharing with my kid. Here are the first five (please don’t laugh!).
1 – Telling Stories – Most of you know by now that I love telling old stories about weird and wacky experiences that I’ve had in the past, usually involving the person I’m telling the story to who probably already remembers the experience. The stories usually start with, “Hey, do you remember the time when…”. Most of the time they’re not even that funny, they’re just weird. But a new kid will not have heard any of these stories, and since they will have little to compare the stories to, the stories should by default be funny. So I’ll have a new person to tell all the old stories to. And that will be a laugh indeed.
2 – Reading Stories – Like Mel said last week, reading to our future son or daughter will be a great joy. My dad always read to me when I was a kid. The first story of importance I remember him reading to me was The Selfish Giant, which is about a giant who locks himself within his castle and won’t let any children play in his garden. It’s a wonderful story at whose end the Baby Jesus appears and silently presents a moral and so forth. My dad also read me The Chronicles of Narnia when I was young, and The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings when I was older. I look forward to doing the same thing and instilling my child with a love of not only the written word but also the art of storytelling and listening.
3 – Going on Hikes – Growing up in England, I had access to the beautiful English countryside within an hours’ drive. My dad frequently took my brother and me on walks in the country where we would walk and talk and look at nature and explore. He would oftentimes carve us out a walking stick from a branch. These were great experiences where I got to know both my dad and the country we lived in. I can’t wait to do this with my future child so that he or she can experience me, the world, animals and plants, and walking with a tree branch!
4 – Doing Things on Weekends – Following along from the last point, I am really, really looking forward to spending time with my future kid on the weekends. My dad always blocked off every Saturday for me and my brother. He rarely, if ever, worked a Saturday. He usually didn’t take ministry calls on Saturdays. He worked Sunday through Friday and people had access to him then. On Saturdays he would take us on walks, to historical sites, museums, movies, swimming pools, or just on bike rides around the neighbourhood. I always knew I could rely on a Saturday with him. Many people wonder why I didn’t grow up to be a rebellious pastors’ kid, and I think this is why – I never had to “fight God” for my dad. As a future father, I am really looking forward to keeping this tradition going.
5 – Star Trek!!! – Oh yes, how could I leave out Star Trek! Now you’re probably thinking that this one is probably the most ridiculous of my list of things that I’m looking forward to doing with my future son or daughter. You’re probably thinking that it’s just a dumb sci-fi show that the kid won’t like because it’s out of date. And you may be partially right. My son or daughter may dislike Trek because it’s old, the aliens look fake, or whatever. But I would rebut with this. Trek isn’t just silly-looking aliens and spaceships on strings. Star Trek is a show about humanity, where we are, where we’re going, and what we have to improve on. It taught me about honour and loyalty, duty and respect, doing the right thing even though the galaxy might say otherwise, and fighting with strength and dignity. Yes, I learnt many of these from the Bible and from my mom and dad, but I also learnt them from Star Trek. When my kid is old enough to understand it, I’m going to start him off on the old 1960s Star Trek, move on to the movies, and then the spin-off series (especially Deep Space Nine, my favourite!). I will encourage him or her to understand the stories and the characters and what’s going on. Yes, we’ll have fun with it, but it’ll also be a good insight into Humanity for my little guy or girl. And that will be so much fun, Spock.
So, there are five simple things I am looking forward to about fatherhood. I know these may sound silly and possibly unrealistic. But we all have unrealistic dreams – it’s making those dreams a reality with someone else alongside you that makes life interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment