Becoming a Parent

My daughter is still five months away from birth but things have already changed. The first shift was simply one of perspective. When you learn that you’re about to become a parent, you start to see things just a little bit differently. For some, this marks the time to start researching the subject of parenting but fortunately, I already did that. It’s a subject I’ve been keenly interested in for the past eight years and I know through every fiber of my being that I’m ready to ace the test. Actually, I wouldn’t call any of what I’ve felt “stress” at all. It’s been more of an uplifting motivation.

There will doubtlessly be heaps of footage covering the adventure to come but in the mean time, here's the first glimpse of our new little client at only 9 weeks of age.

I set deadlines for myself all the time but this one’s different. It can’t be pushed back. She’s arriving in late December and I have to have things ready for her no matter what. I guess things are ready enough already but of course, I want to provide the ideal environment for her so I still feel driven to do better. This drive manifests itself in some interesting ways. It pushed me to look at things differently and come up with some interesting business concepts that I wouldn’t otherwise have thought of. One of these is absolutely game-changing and I can’t wait to share it with everyone but a few other steps have to be completed before I let that particular cat out of the bag. Suffice to say that a little extra kick in the ass and a slight change in perspective can make a monumental difference in how you plan the year ahead.

A lot of people are quick to cite the expenses incurred by children but to me, they pale in comparison to the value they can provide. I just think of it as an investment. If we approach it as a business with the parents cast as service providers that are investing in a single critical client, we can start to notice all kinds of ways to build win/win opportunities for all involved.

Historically, it was common for children to grow up and take care of their parents in their old age. To the parents, this investment plan relied heavily on mentally conditioning the children to remain loyal and available over a very long period of time. This incentivized them to have large numbers of children and indoctrinate them with superstitious beliefs regarding duty and honor within the family. In this day and age, those mechanisms have lost their effectiveness and the nursing homes are filling to the brim with discarded parents. I firmly believe that my "parenting as a service" business model is a sublime solution to this current condition and I eagerly look forward to proving it over the years ahead.

We haven't picked out a name yet so feel free to drop suggestions below. We're aiming for something that's not so common that there will be others with the same name in town but also not so strange that it's difficult to spell or pronounce. She might very well pick a new one for herself at some point but it would still be nice to figure out a good placeholder in the mean time.

Thanks for sharing in our happy news and be sure to check-in from time to time as the story unfolds. I'm sure Tanisha will have plenty of parenting-related posts to share in time too so consider following her account if you're interested in that stuff.

Until next time!