The good and the bad

Did you ever have a feeling of how good of a parent you are? It’s probably one of the best feelings in the world. Then you probably had the reverse too – the feeling of being the worse parent. In the world, of course.

As my son grows up with each day he tests his boundaries more and more. He is 2 years old and 2 months. He is like a sponge, learns more and more each day. And as a result, I try to give him more room to maneuver.

The art of this is to know when it’s too much or too little room. As you’re reading this you probably get a hint that I don’t always calibrate this in an optimal manner.

As he was little I was a bit overprotecting, maybe that’s why I broke one of my foot nails rushing to save him when he was on the edge of the bed. It was mostly an automatic reaction and I realize just how true are the stories of parents doing insane things to save their kids.

Now that he’s grown up, I started to be more permissive. And since he likes cats so much I had a bad idea of letting him get closer to one that seemed friendly enough.

Animals are unpredictable and in half of a second, the cat had scratched my son’s hand in more than 5 places. They weren’t deep but enough that we have to give him 5 shots of the anti rabies vaccine.

A nice experience can turn into a bad one in less than a second. Both I and my son learned a valuable lesson that day.

Side by side is a book about the first years of parenting. Both the beauty and the hidden side of parenting. The long nights and troubled days. Parents who try and fail and then try again. And how your little one puts a smile on your face and you forget everything just in time to start a new challenging day.  It follows the first 2 years of a new dad and his journey, side by side, along with his son.