Removing the head or destroying the brain: that's good parenting

I haven’t written in a while; and for that, I apologize.  My computer again went out of commission, a problem of which I will soon remedy.  It’s possible that Carmen is getting a little tired of my whining so she’s encouraged me to use her computer to release my thoughts. 

I am taking the day off today because I don’t feel too good. Symptoms: scratchy throat, lightheadedness, tired body.  I’m confident that it isn’t the Victorian Lung Disease Carmen’s been dealing with for the past forever, because I’m already feeling better.  After watching some episodes of Tenacious D and Disc 5 of Ken Burns’ National Parks, I decided to do some light reading.  The Expectant Father, 5^th month, says that I should now begin to talk to the developing baby, calling it by the first name, if you know what it is.  The talking should be normal in rate and tone so the baby begins to feel comfortable with your voice and inflection.  After reading that, I felt sort of, I don’t know… worried because I don’t know what to say.  Should I read poetry?  My poetry?  Politics?  Who knows?  Is it too early to indoctrinate the little one with my political ideology?  Probably not.

My friend Jeremy, a sociology professor, read Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender to his little girl, Eleanor, while she was still in the womb.  I suppose I’ll make a more gender specific decision of what to read beginning next week (when we find out what the sex of the kid’s supposed to be).  Right now, it’s just a bump beneath my wife’s shirt.

The subtitle of the 5^th month chapter is “The Light’s Are On and Somebody’s Home.”  That is expanded upon by saying that although your babies ears are full of amniotic fluid, they can hear, and your baby is developing neurons in the brain.  The more connections that brain makes, the more likely they are to be comfortable with your voice after birth.  Incidentally, the more sounds they hear on a regular basis while in the uterus, the more sounds they are comfortable with, outside of the uterus.  Research has shown that children of poly-lingual parents are more comfortable with multiple languages after birth.  The children are generally smarter, learn quicker, more athletic, more attentive, and can soothe themselves easier.  That is pretty amazing.  It makes me think, that as a snob, I should read the best writers, play the best music, and the best movies.  As I write this, I’m watching Shaun of the Dead, (if this post seems absent-minded, you now know why) and I can’t help but wonder if this is the sort of stuff I should introduce to the womb.  Part of me says, “No”; but another part of me feels that the nerdy, hilarious Brit-horror flick would be a good thing to introduce.  However, there is a very big, pregnant part of my life that doesn’t really like horror movies; so it makes my decision easier.  But the point is this: I want to supply only the best because I think every dad want his kid to be better than he; and odd as it feels to admit this, so do I.  I’ve never really wanted or believed that anyone was better than me.  The great fear, for me is that if I don’t have a son or daughter that’s better than me, I would be a failure.  Philosophically, you would have to look at how “better” and “successful” are defined – and not by society but by yourself.  I’m not sure what these terms mean to me, but I think I’ll know when I see it.