When a baby comes into your life it seems as if you have changed the rules of life, all of them, and suddenly. Everything is new, complicated and tremendously delicate. Your stress levels at that time skyrocket to levels never seen, or almost, to date.
With the second and subsequent things change, you have more cards in your hand, but you know the rules and the deck and the game are still very similar to what has been played to date. And therein lies the problem, that you believe it and forget that every creature is a world. That, although the game seems the same, it is not. And this generates a false self confidence by being parents again.
Principle of equality
That confidence that you have been given for months dealing with your eldest son causes your subconscious to make you believe that you have two children of the same age. And I do not speak of the conscious because the first few days will be so lacking in sleep that it will hardly be functional (another thing that is usually forgotten although it is quickly updated). This causes, for example, to leave the house without diapers or wipes, with two juice bricks and a ham and cheese sandwich divided in two.
You get on your nerves when the little boy with 4 months is not able to explain what happens to him and why he cries. And every day you think that is going to be the last one you change a diaper.
We forget that Murphy has returned
Every parent quickly learns Murphy's first Law "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong"Well, then to you after two years of having premiered as a father and a few months that Murphy left you alone, you have forgotten that every newborn has a Murphy under his arm (the bread has gone out of style already).
You who thought this fatherhood was dominated, you meet again with a baby soaked up to the neck, in the middle of a shopping center half an hour away from home and in the bag you only have "size 4" diapers. I don't know if you have ever tried to put a 2-month-old diaper on a 2-month-old baby, but I assure you that the concept "goes around three times" becomes very literal. In fact, it seems that you are wrapping chicken breasts.
Or to give another example, just the day you go with just the right time, that is, you're already five minutes late, your son draws you the map of Europe in the only blouse you have ironed (at least it has become clear to you that the gases he has expelled them).
We make our eldest son an adult
We are so confident that we even deposit the surplus in those around us, and so for example, our oldest son who until yesterday was a baby we were feeding him, happens to be a small adult that he is going to eat by himself and put his plate, glass and cutlery on the table (and he is not going to have to prepare his dinner because between your partner and you you gather enough neurons to keep your life on the edge that separates sanity of the unreasonable).
We want to do the same with one as with several
The arrival of a baby changes many things in your life, but still it remains under control, more or less. But when the second arrives, that half-raging sea through which you had learned to sail happens to be a sea chopped by waves of several meters. And so while one of your children is peacefully asleep, the other will require your best skills as a speaker because it appears with a story, and that's the easy thing. The problem will come when one asks for black and the other white, or when one decides that he wants to play ball and the other goes out with the bike and you will miss those days when you were an expert handling filial situations.
But do not worry, after the first couple of slapping you get to deal with two, three or five children. You learn not to trust your experience blindly and check before leaving that you carry diapers in the bag for the whole family, that the wipes are not dry, that the “change clothes” that you know you are wearing because you put it there three months ago still worth it and that it may not be such a good idea that your oldest son brings the tureen to the table.
