Growing Up as a Father
May 28, 2009
One constant exercise I have to go through is changing the balance between what I will allow my son to do and what I will not. I want him to learn things by figuring it out himself but also protect him (and others).
Lessons learned:
1) Don't let him play with Styrofoam: He will enjoy it but I will not (enjoy cleaning up after). I was assembling a coffee table and asked Aiden to help me remove the packaging and put them back in the box, which he did very happily. While I was busy fitting the legs, within minutes he had broken up the Styrofoam in pieces and it was all over the floor. Grrrhh!. Its not easy cleaning it up using a vacuum either because it breaks up into very little pieces which are light and sticks to things(including your fingers).
2) Don't let him play around things that are unstable, like a bicycle. While we were waiting for our ferry at Pelee Island dock, I decided to rent a bicycle with a kid's trailer at the back but did ride too long as I went too fast and scared Aiden :( . So I put the bicycle on its stand and was talking to my wife Caroline while Aiden we busy inspecting the cycle. He did something that caused the trailer to detach which hurt his thumb very bad. His thumb nail almost came off! Its much better now but that was a scary experience for me and a painful one for my son.