I'm definitely not ready to be a parent
Aside from not being financially able to raise a kid at this point, I don't have the whole parent mindset down.
Case in point. This evening. I was at the County Line on the Lake with my Dad, Sister, Brother-in-Law, and 2 nieces for an early birthday dinner. Dinner was over, and my nieces wanted to go down to the dock to feed the turtles. I told them it was too cold for the turtles, but they were undetered.
So outside we went, and lo and behold, there were no turtles. So instead of feeding them, we started throwing "turtle food" at each other, the girls started chasing each other around, I'd act like I was going to toss them in the lake, etc... I may be about to turn 27, but I can horse around with the best of them. It was starting to get a little out of hand after about 10 or 15 minutes, and frankly I was getting worn out, so I told the girls we could throw one more handful into the lake and then we needed to back inside.
My youngest niece, who is 5, started to act like she was going to push me in the water. I was laughing, but obviously she wasn't going to budge me, so no harm, no foul. She then got a mischievous look on her face, stopped pushing me, and got a running start and shoved her sister, who is 8, in the same manner she had been shoving me.
Key difference though. I'm a full grown man, my oldest niece is a tiny 8 year old - and she wasn't expecting it.
Into the drink she went, headfirst.
I fished her out as quickly as I could and made sure she was ok, and asked the waitress for a towel. They didn't have any, so i just had her hug me to try to dry her off a little bit (cold water, and not the warmest day ever didn't make for the most pleasant swim). And then I started laughing. And couldn't stop.
It was probably not a bad reaction, because instead of being freaked out, my nieces started laughing too. Until their dad came outside.
Whoops.
I guess I won't be getting asked to babysit for awhile.
Case in point. This evening. I was at the County Line on the Lake with my Dad, Sister, Brother-in-Law, and 2 nieces for an early birthday dinner. Dinner was over, and my nieces wanted to go down to the dock to feed the turtles. I told them it was too cold for the turtles, but they were undetered.
So outside we went, and lo and behold, there were no turtles. So instead of feeding them, we started throwing "turtle food" at each other, the girls started chasing each other around, I'd act like I was going to toss them in the lake, etc... I may be about to turn 27, but I can horse around with the best of them. It was starting to get a little out of hand after about 10 or 15 minutes, and frankly I was getting worn out, so I told the girls we could throw one more handful into the lake and then we needed to back inside.
My youngest niece, who is 5, started to act like she was going to push me in the water. I was laughing, but obviously she wasn't going to budge me, so no harm, no foul. She then got a mischievous look on her face, stopped pushing me, and got a running start and shoved her sister, who is 8, in the same manner she had been shoving me.
Key difference though. I'm a full grown man, my oldest niece is a tiny 8 year old - and she wasn't expecting it.
Into the drink she went, headfirst.
I fished her out as quickly as I could and made sure she was ok, and asked the waitress for a towel. They didn't have any, so i just had her hug me to try to dry her off a little bit (cold water, and not the warmest day ever didn't make for the most pleasant swim). And then I started laughing. And couldn't stop.
It was probably not a bad reaction, because instead of being freaked out, my nieces started laughing too. Until their dad came outside.
Whoops.
I guess I won't be getting asked to babysit for awhile.