Hair, Girth, and Rude Awakenings: childhood, fatherhood, and the chaos in between

There was a point in my life (I have to believe) when I would have showered, thoroughly, had someone just urinated on me in the middle of the night. Somewhere between the birth of your first child and the day your nest empties, your standards change. Suddenly, a simple bath with hand sanitizer (or a warm wet-wipe) is acceptable before crawling back to bed. Children have a way of altering your perceptions. Having children invade your life (untreated) can lead to mental instability. As such, the essays and stories that follow are therapy of sorts. They are my way, from a seat on a plane or a quiet hotel room, of remembering why I put up with the TSA and bad room-service hamburgers. Many books about parenting speak about the beauty of children. Some also discuss the difficulty of the task of parenting. This book is more about the chaos of it. Moreover, this is not a book about parenting; it is a book about a parent. Think of it like a hard demarcation, separating the act from the insanity. Between the two, the insanity is more interesting. Simply put, is an unprepared father's perspective on childhood and fatherhood.