As a new parent, you always encounter new experiences that always have you second guessing yourself whether you are the worst parent of the year.  Each time we attend our Sunday church service, we are always apprehensive about dropping our little man off at the nursery.   Not that we don’t trust the nursery workers; it’s that we don’t know how he’s going to respond.

The first couple of times we approached the nursery room, he was onto us.   His grip started to clinch tighter knowing that the “drop-off” was coming.   Once we were in the room, the devil came out.   A reenactment is pictured above.   Crying, screaming, kicking.  He did not want to be left in there.

As the weeks went by, we tried to get creative.   I would walk him and attempt to distract him with a toy, hoping to divert his attention.   That worked for about 5 seconds until he realized that I wasn’t standing right behind him.   At that point it was a mad dash to the baby gate and let the nursery workers take over.   I can’t tell you how hard it is as a parent to walk away when your child is screaming.   It never got easier, but then something happened.   He actually liked going!   This morning, for example, he went into the nursery just fine.   And then when we came back to pick him up, we were greeted with a smile and a “Dad-dy” came out.   How precious is that?  Sorry to sound like a sap, but I know that I only get a little while longer to enjoy the younger years before he’s off to college and “Dad-dy” is just an old fart.