Beyoncé’s artistic pregnancy announcement broke the internet. It also revitalized a trend that has mostly lain dormant for me.
I really want to have a child.
This isn’t some new revelation. I’ve wanted to start a family for a while now. However, in the past two weeks, I’ve been inundated with adorable birth announcements – both on the internet and in real life. A friend of mine, who is getting married next month, recently sent out an email that his fiancée is three months pregnant. I’m overjoyed for them because it’s his third child and their second child together. I haven’t known them very long but because they’ve been so candid about their love story, I’m genuinely happy for them.
We no longer panic at the responsibility of having another life in our hands. We’re waiting on it.
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Along with their email, I scrolled through my Instagram feed on Valentine’s Day and was met with a beautifully-curated slideshow birth announcement with of course Beyoncé’s music in the background. And then another – retired Olympic track great, Sanya Richards-Ross and her husband, former NFL DB Aaron Ross, are expecting this summer. The Twitter hashtag #WeMetOnTwitter went viral and was filled with photos of toothless grins or round, protruding bellies; results of people who stepped out on faith and decided to pursue love, sometimes hundreds of miles away. For a woman, these visual representations might spark feelings of jealousy or regrets. But for me, it’s an intense feeling of excitement and…well, baby fever.
I used to think I was an oddball for being so passionate about wanting to start a family. Although, any time the subject comes up in social circles and even on social media, men across the spectrum are open about the prospect of impending fatherhood. We no longer panic at the responsibility of having another life in our hands. We’re waiting on it.
When I used to think of having a son or daughter, fear would sweep over me. I’d think about all the “what ifs” and hope to God that I wouldn’t screw the child up the way my parents did me. I worked so hard to make my life as it now just right so that when I meet the woman I want to have a child with, everything will fall into place. However, life isn’t so neat that way. Parenthood doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. And sometimes becoming a parent turns out to be the very thing that makes you the person you’re supposed to be.
There’s an extra bedroom in the house that I haven’t done much of anything with because one day it’ll be filled with bright colors and block letters of a name on the wall.
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Having a child is one of the life’s most wonderful experiences. I’ve watched many friends and family members go through it and can see how it’s changed them. I recall conversations we had about how they expected to be as parents and what they’d do in certain situations. Now that it’s happening, though, nothing is how they thought it would go. And that’s what makes me want to experience it too. It’s that unpredictability and the satisfaction of knowing that no two days will ever be exactly the same that makes me look forward to the day that I can join the club.
I hate to think of life in terms of lists, but fatherhood is one of two things left on mine. It’s subconsciously become ingrained in the little things. When I go to buy clothing, I find myself looking at the small version of my sizes. There’s an extra bedroom in the house that I haven’t done much of anything with because one day it’ll be filled with bright colors and block letters of a name on the wall. I used to have vivid dreams of what my future kids would look like. Now it’s mostly small figures or sounds in the background.
I’m not obsessive about it, but I feel good knowing that my life is set up to for the faint noise of a crying little one.
Baby fever for guys is a definitely real thing.
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Photo: Getty Images