I was talking with a friend of mine who recently had a baby. We discuss about various personal things and more often it’s either about our babies or hubbies. We found something. Men are proud. Very very proud when they have a baby!
I still remember when I was pregnant, hubby took care of me and our unborn baby so well. But hubby didn’t seem as much excited as I was. Of course, he was all gaga about the pregnancy and even claimed that he should be the one to break the news, even to my parents. But about the baby, he talked nothing of.
During the following weeks, he accompanied me to all our prenatal appointments. He never missed one. We either fixed the appointments on weekends even if it’s more expensive, or he takes some time off and joins me to see the doctor. But he never joined me in guessing if it was a boy or a girl, in listing names for the baby, in window shopping baby clothes even though we had no plans to buy so early, in singing to the baby and even in waiting patiently in front of me to catch the baby’s movement every now and then. I often argued had a loving discussion with him about why he showed no interest in our baby. And he would say that he was just so excited as I was about the whole pregnancy but he cannot do much for the baby he has never seen or touched. He said “as a woman, you might have felt like a mother as soon as you knew about the pregnancy but as a man, I will become a father only when I hold the baby in my hands”. Makes sense alright!
And he was right. The moment the baby was born, he was a father. That too a good father. He loved the baby very much and he could carry him around. But he couldn’t make him sleep. He couldn’t bath him. He couldn’t feed him well. That said, dads cannot do much of ’caregiving’. But it is their pride that amazes me.
The way he handles his child’s ego is amazing. He is a great friend and he doesn’t want to restrict him. As long as he is safe, it’s a green signal. He participates actively in my positive speaking program and teaches his son. There must be some reason why Pappu always prefers dad over mom, right?
There were some of these days when I made a mistake regarding Pappu. I had never seen hubby as furious as he was those days. Rather than feeling hurt or angry that he was mad at me, I felt warm, smiled, and at the same time had tears in my eyes.
