'Daddy & Me' Prenatal Class

Tonight was "daddy's night" at our prenatal class :-)

As oppose to learning about labour and delivery, breast feeding, postpartum, etc.(all mommy topics) tonight was all about the daddy's! I really enjoyed this night.

The class focused on three major topics in which daddy's play a huge part, and their role/signifigance in their child's life:
1. Security
2. Stimulation
3. ??? (baby brain....lol...i dont remember the third topic of discussion!!!lol I'll have to ask Dennard when he gets home)

We had a guest 'daddy' speaker in tonight who discussed what it meant to him to be a dad, some of the worries and challenges he faced, how he was able to be the dad he wanted to be to his two children, etc.

He was VERY long winded, lol, but a really nice, well informed and educated man.

He spoke to us for the first hour, we had a 10min break and then we were divided into two groups: mommy's inside the class room and daddy's outside.

The guest speaker took the daddy's outside to discuss some of their fears, concerns, wants, hopes, dreams, etc. of being a daddy. We were asked similar questions; however, our questions were catered more to 'what does the word DAD mean to you?'  'what about your parents do you admire and hope to do and pass down to your child'  'what are some of your concerns about being a parent'........

The daddy's were brought back in and we compared our questions and answers together as a group.

Dennard and I took separate cars tonight as he was planning on skipping out 15mins early to catch a basketball game he really wanted to see; however, he decided to stay until the end :-)

When I saw him walk back into the room with the other daddy's, I leaned over and asked him "what about your game? I thought you were going to skip out early?". He smiled and said "Nah...I am going to stay a bit longer". I chuckled and said "you liked the discussion out there and you want to see the comparison of our answers don't you?!!". He smiled and said "Ya!". lol It was really very cute.

He faithfully stayed until the end; however, he was getting restless come 9pm when the class was suppose to end b/c the guest speaker would not stop talking!! In fact, we were all getting restless and wanted to go home. I kept whispering to him "go sweets...skip out now!!"; however, he remained until the end.

There was one answer Dennard put on the board that I thought was beautiful. The question was "what about your parents do you admire and hope to do and pass down to your child?". He put "faithfulness and fidelity in the marriage".   I loved his answer!!! One thing Dennard really respects about his parents is that they have stuck it out and remained faithful to each other all these years.

In a world of broken families, one month marriages and people that deem marriage as another 'piece of paper' or something to be taken lightly, his parents commitment to each other spoke volumes to him growing up as a kid and even now in his early 30's. 

It's something that Dennard has expressed to me that is very important to him for us to live out and pass down to our children.

Sadly, next week is our last prenatal class :-( I am so bummed out about that!!! I am really going to miss these classes and seeing the regular faces each week. I plan on making all the mommy's a little care package and giving it to them at the end of class next week.  Nothing too big, but just a little gift to bless them and make them feel special.

I'll let you know next week what I decided to put in the care packages :-)