Homecoming

This weekend was my 20th college homecoming reunion, and I was struck - as I wandered past gatherings of people from my Class of '86 and a few years beyond - how many couples I saw with young children. I know technically they are old enough to be grandparents, but I got the impression that for many of them this was their first generation of children. In my group of about a dozen or so people, there were three of us - all in our early 40s - who had children within the last two years.

I asked one of them, my friend Fritz, who has a 16-month old son, to tell me what life is like for him now with a new child. Here is what he wrote:

"As for becoming a Dad, it's the single, most wonderful event in my entire life. I think about things that I've never thought about previously - where I live and how I live, and particularly how my career fits in with all of my other priorities. Saturday used to be a fairly routine work day for me, at least in the morning. It's now officially designated as 'family day' in the Smith household. When I'm around my son, I always seem to have his safety and happiness at the fore in all of my thoughts. I want to protect (but not necessarily isolate) him from all the bad in the world, teach him to avoid the mistakes I've made, and with my wife's help, create a warm and loving environment for him to grow up in. I love my wife, my parents, my brother and sister and their families dearly, but the love that I have for my son is somehow stronger. It's unconditional, at least for now, and I hope it never changes."