Parenting is the best

Parenting is the worst

Parenting is exhausting

Parenting is exhilirating

Parenting is confusing

Parenting is eye-opening.

The bottom line is that on the way to becoming a parent, no matter what we think it will be, it never turns out to be just that.

For me, every single step along the way, from the moment I even thought about being a dad to this very evening, when our son wouldn’t go to sleep without running through an extended list of 14,000 excuses of why he couldn’t or wouldn’t go to sleep, being a parent, being a dad has been so much different in substance and magnitude than I ever imagined.

Funny thing is, on the way to this moment in fatherhood, I unexpectedly learned more about myself and people generally than I ever thought I would.  I learned the real meaning of patience (something I still don’t have enough of), compassion (again, something I need more of), and sheer joy (and yet again something I need more of).

Who knew?

Only the people who went down this path before, and I wouldn’t or couldn’t listen to them, because you just really can’t comprehend till you go down that path yourself.