Do I have what it takes to be a good father?

While every day is filled with excitement and anticipation about my baby boy, some moments I wonder if I can be the father he needs me to be. I’m not a bad bloke (if I do say so myself) but is that enough?

There is so much that I’m responsible for now. There are the obvious things to start off with, like how to sit up, and how to swallow food. Those two I pretty much have covered. I’m also fairly confident in the toddler years – I can use the big boy toilet with best of them and I am a dab hand at drawing shades on the sun. After this though, have I got what my boy will need?

What happens when he has his first confrontation with a kid his own age? Will I be able to stop myself from name-calling and launching a water bomb blitzkrieg? What about when the first girl he says he loves screws up her nose and runs away crying (hey, it can happen to the best of us)? How will I stop from dressing him in a tux and teaching him poetry?

And then there’s his first football game, his first spelling bee, the first school play – so much that I am going to need to teach him!

If I look back at my own childhood with a critical eye, I can see my folks were kind of making it up as they went along. There were times when they didn’t get it right (Happy Pants, anyone?) and there were times when they did (giving away the Happy Pants to the op shop).

I know it’ll be trial and error, especially for the firstborn (as a firstborn myself I know how much that can suck) and that’s ok, but will I have the resolve not to crack lame jokes as I drive Leo and his mates to their first boys-and-girls-together birthday party?

I can see that it is touch-and-go as to whether my boy is embarassed or amused by me. Hopefully the smiles will be genuine and not of the “please be quiet you daft old fool” variety.

Time, as they say, will tell.