LETTER TO UNBORN CHILD

Dear Little unborn Child, I'm writing this letter while waiting for your arrival and wondering whether you are a boy or a girl. It's very late and I've been lying here in bed next to you and Mum... thinking. You know, you will be coming into a world far different from the one I entered. today, you are the reason Mums clothes don't fit, and tomorrow you'll be expected to fit into the world that's been readied for you. If you are a healthy baby, as I pray to god you will be, for that first year or so you will do a lot of eating and sleeping and laughing and crying and then one day you'll say your first word, and it might just be "no"... cause you'll hear it so much. You will learn to play and you'll work so hard at playing. You'll discover all sorts of new words... You'll learn to run so fast and jump and skip and you'll find out about Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy and Cartoons. And you'll learn to love. And through all that I'll be learning too... About you and what makes you happy and what makes you sad or angry... And how to convince you that vegetables really are good for you. Then one day you'll be ready for school... It's a very special place where you'll learn all those things that you just can't learn at home. I'll be fighting back the tears on that first day for in a sense on that day you'll cease to be a baby. You'll have taken your first step into society and it will only be the first of so many steps and so many new discoveries. As you begin to grow and change you'll become more aware of the changes around you. You'll notice your Mum and Dad turning grey and we'll become increasingly old fashioned and you'll convince yourself that anyone over 18 is old. Of course one day my little child you yourself will be a grown up and you'll want to be treated as such and you shall be, although I must admit that'll be a tough one for me... because if there is one sin most parents are guilty of it's selfishness... you see, we never want to lose you. You'll be looking forward to making your own way and putting to good use all that learning... and I'll be wishing I could turn back the clock. But time goes forward my little "borning" child and pretty soon that lump in Mums belly will be you in my arms... so grow as you must and I'll ready your world, and the day of your birth will surely brighten mine.

Love, Dad