Grandma had taken charge of the newborn, while the parents, her own daughter and her husband, swaggered in the sheer audacity of what they had done. They humbled-boasted about their exhaustion, their lives turned upside down, and the love they felt in every waking moment. I’d met them before the birth of their baby and in this second meeting I found them transformed. Author and Yale University professor of philosophy and cognitive science L.A. Paul proposes a puzzle in which you are to imagine that you are approached at a party by a charismatic stranger with whom you exchange a few minutes of flirty banter. He then says to you, “I’m a vampire and I think you would make a great vampire.” He goes on to offer to make you into a vampire, telling you how wonderful it is, how you will be immortal, how you’ll have super strength and speed, the ability to fly, and, like him, you’ll be irresistibly charming. You have to admit, that all sounds pretty good, but you have some concerns. “What about the blood drinking? I don’t like the sound of that. And I don’t know if I can live without ever seeing the sun again. Those seem like a pretty big downsides.” The vampire nods, “I get it, but let me assure you, once you’re a vampire, those things won’t matter.” I had shared my own version of this thought experiment with these young parents several months earlier. At the time, they treated it as a joke, but here they were, transformed into people for whom things like dirty diapers, lack of sleep, and a non-existent social life no longer mattered. They were, like all new parents, like all vampires, transformed. The father remembered my story. “You were so right,” he told me. “Nothing is the same and I love it.” I’ve spent my career around new parents. At any given moment, there were a half dozen or more pregnant women in our preschool community, and another dozen with children under 12 months old. I told this father what I’ve told young parents for decades. “Listen to every bit of advice that comes your way, especially from your own parents and your in-laws, but only follow the advice that you feel in your heart. What worked for other parents may or may not work for you. What worked for other children may or may not work for yours. At the end of the day, you are creating a relationship between two people. My only advice is to explore being a parent as if you are the first to discover it . . . because you are.” ****** I’ve been writing about play-based learning almost every day for the past 14 years. I’ve recently gone back through the 4000+ blog posts(!) I’ve written since 2009. Here are my 10 favorite in a nifty free download. Click here to get yours. I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you’d like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. Thank you! Resourceaholic: 5 Maths...Bear Wants More...Teaching Resources for...“Building Strong Writers:...
