As a parent of a 6 month old and a "almost 4" year old, I found this column from John Podhoretz a welcome relief from all the "parenting is the worst thing in the world" crap being fed to us by the media these days. (For example, Desperate Housewives and last week's Time Magazine). Podhoretz notes:
It's pretty simple. When you're a parent, you're the only mother, the only father, your child will (God willing) ever have. Every minute, every hour, every day, forever.
Those of us who have young children were all raised to be self-actualizing, self-possessed, self-supporting. It's safe to say we think more, and more deeply, about ourselves and our own needs than any other people at any other time in the history of the world. But at 3:30 in the morning, a crying baby or a sick child doesn't care about your needs. She needs you. You have to put somebody else first.
For some of us, being a parent is a liberation from the tyranny of the self. Others seem to cling to the shackles of their solipsism. Tragically, they have been unable to wrest free from a worldview more suitable to childhood, and therefore sadly denied themselves the particular satisfactions that come from embracing adulthood in all its glorious mundanity.
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