My kid is only 6months old, yet he has taught me more than I
have ever learnt in the last ten years of supposed life’s
experience. It is amazing really, that one so young can teach so
much, that a ball of squeaking immaturity can give and educate
others who are theoretically so much wiser and more learned than
an ‘incy’ bit of life that has just popped its head out for a
look.
I mean he has taught me nothing startling like quantum physics
or rocket science just simple things, an increased awareness of
what is around me and a much better understanding of life and
how people think and operate as they do! I have over the last
twenty years made a career for myself in Marine Engineering,
with Diplomas, certificates and degrees falling out of my ears
and all backed up by a wealth of hands on experience. But all of
this background was so pointless when faced with the pram that
we bought!
What is a pram? A pram is a perambulator, a four wheeled vehicle
for a baby pushed by one on foot”! Nothing startling there! What
my son taught me was that nothing is what it seems in life and
that you can have all the certificates in the world but they
don’t help with prams! This thing that we purchased was so
technologically advanced that it took me three weeks to figure
out how to raise the seat! Eiffel and his Tower, Edison and his
Light Bulb or even Ferris and his Wheel had nothing on this
“Combi” invention! A fully-equipped mean machine, an all-terrain
off-the road and all weather state of art vehicular transport
that could fold up into handbag dimensions, perform to 80% even
with flats on any two of its eight wheels and turn a circle on a
dime (for this last action all wheels do have to be at peak
performance). It weighed less than two kilos could shrink or
expand to suit the size of baby it would carry and it was
multi-directional (the baby could be pushed forwards or
backwards with the flick of a switch).
After three weeks of trying to assemble the thing I eventually
got it in motion. Unfortunately I was so afraid of the thing
collapsing with the baby inside that I went out and bought a
four wheeled monstrosity that was un-collapsible,
omni-directional and could do not much more than be pushed
strenuously along the road with a baby inside. It also meant
that I didn’t have to carry a puncture repair kit with me!
So however educated and knowledgeable a person is: not all is as
straightforward as it seems!
I love my son. He is such a character full of life and energy,
full of cheek and smile!
He has taught me that adults are so bogged down with trying to
wade through life that we can no longer enjoy that which is
around us! We walk around and through daily life with chips,
worries and problems weighing us down as if the whole world is
resting precariously on our backs. Looking at my son, I realize
that what we do in life is crazy; we grow older in a manner that
builds problems on top of problems. We are all so desperate to
be at the top of the ladder as regards material possessions or
status, working harder and harder to earn the money to buy the
latest in technological advance, so rushed and harried to get
there before the next door neighbor that we forget what life is
all about. I buy my son toys, I bought him this all singing, all
dancing red thing that had mirrors and handles and all sorts of
jingling things on it. The lady in the shop told me that it was
the most popular toy they had in stock and that it would keep
the baby occupied for hours. When I gave it to my son he looked
at it with immediate wonderment, picked it up and neatly dropped
it over the side of his cot! He is only six months old for
……..sake! Anyway, he dropped it, thus discarding this ultra
modern toy from his life and since then he has neither looked at
it nor even acknowledged its presence. He loves the remote
control though, even better he loves this tiny little one-dollar
squeaky toy that looks like a pregnant hippopotamus!
My son taught me that it is only our own fault that we live the
way we do, burdened and weighted down. So much pleasure can be
gained from so little, yet as adults we want so much more yet
never quite reach a degree of satisfaction or happiness that can
be maintained for longer than a day!
My son also taught me that he can fill a nappy faster than I can
recover from changing the last one, babies really control their
parents rather than us controlling them and screaming is the
closest emotion to laughing hysterically!
My son also told me to love unhindered and without thought or
care for anything else in the world.
Thanks for everything but the pram son!
|
