Your first child is usually the “experimental model”,
On it you learn diapering and how to give a bottle.
If things are too quiet, you worry and fret.
When he cries, you wonder if it’s because he’s dry or wet.

When at last the little one is quiet and fast asleep,
You wonder if he’s still breathing, so you go and take a peep.
You tiptoe for that reassuring look, and pull up the cover,
And you wonder if he knows that you’re his doting mother.

Questions go through your mind at a rapid pace.
So much to do and so much responsibility to face.
Am I feeding him too much or too little?
Are his bones really so tiny, and are they brittle?

How did his fingernails get so long?
Does he like to be sung to sleep with a song?
Do babies always fret so much when cutting teeth?
Should parents have to endure such crying and such grief?

How do you teach him to blow his nose?
Quick, someone get me a siphon hose.
How do you teach him to eat with a spoon?
Oh, whatever happened to the honeymoon?

What! It’s time for a potty-chair?
How do you get him to go sit there?
How many “no, no’s” does it take,
To teach him that glass and China really do break?

Look, look! Did you see what he did?
He pushed down the other kid.
Now, what do we do, and what do we say?
No, no, that isn’t the way!

Gosh, how did Mom teach us wrong from right?
Did she say it’s wrong to argue and fight?
Somehow, she taught us that Love is the way,
And she showered us with hugs and kisses every day.

So, a good parent must set a good example to follow,
Then discipline is not so hard for a child to swallow.
Set aside time to spend with him each day,
For this, in the end, is what will pay.

Children grow up with low self-esteem,
If parents try to be too hard or too mean.
So give your child a mixture of all of the above,
And all questions will be answered where there is Love.

By Ann Leyh