One thing that’s nice as a new dad is feeling useful. It may sound a bit strange saying that, but there are plenty of occasions when I’ve felt a bit helpless, being stuck in work while Melissa handles some kind of minor crisis at home with Harry.
Admittedly, this wasn’t a problem immediately after Harry was born. During my two weeks’ paternity leave, I was on tea-making duty for the seemingly never-ending stream of visitors, as well as sterilising bottles, making up feeds and so on. But when I went back to work, Melissa coped so well, there were times when I felt I couldn’t do anything useful to help.
Since Harry’s got a little older, though, I’ve found myself becoming more useful again. It’s not that Harry is a bad baby; far from it. However, he has been teething for the last couple of months and this can mean a few, how can I put it, niggly days.
Since I went back to work after Harry was born, Melissa’s made a point of handing him straight over to me when I get in so that I can spend some time with him, feed him, change him and so on. I always look forward to this part of the day – it’s my chance to convince Harry that cricket is in fact the finest sport ever invented.
Anyway, when he’s teething, he can be a bit of a handful and I can tell as soon as open the door what sort of day it’s been for Melissa. Put it this way, some days she’s very keen for me to finish work on time.
I still get the easy end of the deal though; I’m not just saying this to score a few brownie points, but looking after a young baby has got to be one of the hardest jobs about. So I’m happy to keep Harry occupied while Melissa catches up on all the things she intended, but didn’t have time to do during the day. At least it makes me feel useful again.
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