Young Fatherhood?

A male nurse preparing me for surgery mentioned to my wife and that he had had his first child at age 45 years old.  I mentioned to him that likely he could be a better father at that age than someone in their 20s.

I , for example got my live in girlfriend pregnant when I was 26  years old and my son was born a month after we got married then in 1974. However, though I could handle being married okay because I was grown up and responsible enough I was still in many ways a boy becoming a man even at age 26 especially in regard to things like skiing and motorcycles.

So, I told the nurse some errors I made until I was about 29 years old.

For example, one day my first wife wanted to go shopping so I let her do this and she left me with our 

2 1/2  year old son and I decided to go cross country skiing because we lived in mt. Shasta then so I did and put him in what was called then a Gerry Carrier on my back while skiing. But, then I fell down and he shot forward about 10 or more feet skidding in the snow and cried but wasn't injured and I thought to myself: "What a jerk you Are Fred to not be more mature than this?"

Later as an adult he said: "My ankles used to get burned on the cooling fins of your motorcycle engine too." I said, "Why didn't you tell me so I could prevent this?" and he said: "I was too young and I didn't talk much then." So, I felt really bad about this too. he was so young I put him on the gas tank in front of me and had him hold onto the bar across that reinforces the motorcycle handlebars and thought that this was okay because I had seen other fathers do this with under 4 year old children then.

Obviously, the world was much different in many different ways in 1974 than now. I can't even begin to tell you just how different it was. It was as different as 1974 was to the 1950s which was an entirely different world too.

Do I like the world now?

Not really. But all the eras have their good and their bad points. So, you have to use the good points of each era or you don't survive that era.

By God's Grace