First Time Parents: How to Prepare for Significant Changes

A significant transition in our lives is the experience of becoming a first time parent. This is one of those rare times that we can appreciate the magnitude of changes upon us, but everything changes. The initial expectations are unique to each of us as we all absorb the weight of the circumstances differently. But with each passing day, theory is replaced with reality and the decisions we're met with mold us into parents. Though I roughly look the same, I hardly resemble the person I once was.

No matter what the living space is, your home is fundamentally changing as parenthood takes hold. The safety levels increase with the child's abilities from the ground up. Furniture is moved to maximize a playable area and to protect the electronics and breakables. Space soon becomes a disappearing commodity as the crib, swing, changing table, closet space, toys, toys, and more toys manipulate themselves among a once leisurely office den.

Every new item of any size is mathematically envisioned to ensure that we will indeed be able to close our front doors securely without overflowing. Cleanliness becomes a greater priority as children will find the smallest kernels of yuck on the ground. However, a tidy house is sprung back into the perpetual battle as soon as the little one awakens.

Babies love predictable schedules and before we know it, our day is planned with eating, sleeping, and diaper appointments. There is just enough room within that schedule to maintain a healthy dose of random planning. The days of sleeping until whenever and doing whatever for the sake of doing is pretty much disappearing. Everything now has a purpose or schedule tied in directly with our daughter.

There's no longer the option of catching a movie after lunch, of course. We need to secure a babysitter, prepare an array of child accessories, and brief the volunteer on the current diaper, eat, and sleep trend. It is possible to attain these moments, but there are plenty of parenting things that can be fun too. Everyday things that we might take for granted are experienced in a new light for the first time through our children's eyes. Instead of the movies, a trip to a pet shop or a walk around a park is just as entertaining.

My own life experiences in the past have been reckless and daring, often running head first into nearly anything without any concern for the consequences; in other words, normal. Ah, but that too has changed at a rapid pace. Today I find myself reading the fine print on the medicines that I'm reluctant to give. My car can hardly believe it's me when I'm obeying the speed limits and maintaining proper following distances. I've also come to realize that although we may look like regular people in the parenting roles, our minds are working like a bulldog, secretly profiling everybody who approaches our danger zone. If you want to test us, light a cigarette near us and watch our eyes and hands flinch.

If you've not yet fulfilled your parenting transformations, let me tell you how it really is; I began living outside myself the moment my child was born. If you've ever thought about reincarnation or eternal life, it's your children. I experience everything through her now, and we are learning new things together. Along the way, the memories of my own childhood are guiding me in parenthood. My youth and ambitions, the essence of me, are being invested into a brand new person. And while I prepare her for the A,B,C's, I am secretly dreaming of the day when she realizes that she can control her own destiny and create dreams of her own.