36 Things I learned since becoming a Dad

(Daddy takes stock)

I turn 36 this year. Yup, 3 full cycles of the Chinese Zodiac Calendar.

But 36 years of life couldn’t have prepared me what Fatherhood had taught me in the past 7+ years. And these are just some of the things I have learned along my amazing parenthood journey.

1. Babies are fitted with a sixth sense mechanism, so that they can cry precisely at the right moment when I sit down to eat or check my emails.

2. Crying can be the official soundtrack of my life.

3. Get sleep whenever I can, or if  I can.

4. Babies are cranky if they don’t have regular bowel movements. Oh wait, me too actually.

5. And if they do poop, that sound can be the sweetest sound in the world.

6. I am able to change poop-stained diapers anywhere, even at a staircase landing.

7. But then, it usually takes 3 or 4 cycles of hard scrubbings to get that smell of shit out of my fingers.

8. Use less force when tugging at the secure tapes of a new diaper. Or risk seeing money flushed down the drain.

9. Carrying a baby is a stupendous way to start a conversation with strangers.

10. Photos and videos of my children take up more than 80% of hard disk space on my computer. Shopping for Terabytes of storage couldn't get more fun than this.

11. Don’t go crazy buying tons and tons of cutesy kids clothing. A BNIB Transformers toy will make a far better investment. Or extra RAM.

12. When all else fails, the iPhone or iPad will save the day. Or cough medicine.

13. I can accomplish unimaginable things with only one hand – whatsapp-ing, cooking, dish washing, tweeting, buttoning a shirt.

14. It always ends up costing more than I think, so just get used to it.

15. There are some activities that only work best when done with Dad.

16. Involvement. Just because I don't have boobies doesn't mean I need not give a hand to calm the kids down.

17. Patience. My wife knows - I’m an impatient bugger. But I would like to think that my patience threshold has grown with each passing year of Fatherhood.

18. Sacrifice. Be it time, money, work or sleep, sacrifice is something that comes with Parenthood. But it will all be worth it when I get the payoffs.

To be continued in Part 2 HERE.