Dad Stuff

…needs braaaaaaaains.

…in the run-up to becoming a Dad, but this must win the prize for the most obnoxiously stupid and offensive thing I’ve read about childbirth:

“A labouring woman needs first to be protected against any stimulation of the thinking part of her brain - the neocortex. This part of the brain needs to take a back seat and allow the primal ‘unthinking’ part of the brain connected to basic vital functions to take over. A woman needs to be in a world where she doesn’t need to think or talk. “We need to smash the limits of political correctness where fathers’ presence at birth is concerned. In his desire to ‘share the experience’ the man asks questions, offers reassuring words and denies his partner the privacy that is one of her most basic needs. ”

That it seems gloriously unconnected with any actual evidence.

Source: The Times.

I believe I’ve now experienced the loudest coherant noise my daughter can make.

Sunday morning I was discussing with Maire if, and how much, chocolate Ada could have for Easter. After some bargaining the answer was: a 50 cent piece sized bit of my egg. In accordance with best parenting practises, haggling over what she was allowed was in one room, while Ada and the egg in question, safely out of her reach, were in another.

You can, of course, see where this is headed.

Enter Rodger, to the scene of an ecstatic daughter with a staved-in egg, and a mouth full of chocolate and wrapping foil, hollering “YUMMY!” at ever-increasing volumes until her little lungs and voice box reached their peak.

Chocolate was quite the success.

OK, so only for four or five steps at a time, but Ada is now happily standing up and walking.