I wasn’t too clear in my last post about the principal of parenthood. I’ve got no problem with the idea of being a parent I think I’d be a damn’ good Dad and indeed, I regard not having children as one of the things missing in my life. It’s something that nearly happened to me when I was in my early 20s but that’s another story.
What would have been an utter disaster, for both of us, was the idea of becoming accidental parents at that age, before I’d even sat my O Levels let alone my A and S Levels. That would have been two lives, well three actually, completely wrecked.
My parents would most certainly have taken the attitude that it was my fault, and mine alone. The fact that it takes ‘two to tango’ wouldn’t have been considered, the entire blame would have rested on me, the boy with no self control.
In those days we’d have had to leave school and get married, there would never have been the slightest possibility of not having the child. I’d have had to take whatever job I could get and the future would have been bleak for both of us. Any marriage based on those criteria would have been pretty short lived as well as miserable for all parties.
Anyway, more by luck than good management I avoided that fate and we kept our relationship on it’s more innocent level. Kissing and cuddling were absolutely fine with me but staying clothed and relatively chaste was an important consideration.
On the condoms issue, as I said in my last post they were something that most boys my age only vaguely knew about and weren’t the sort of thing that could be easily obtained unless one had a big brother or a father who got the fact that teenagers absolutely will have sex.
My Dad actually gave me a pack of three on my 18th birthday as a sort of supplemental birthday present and told me that I should always carry at least one in my wallet. I can only assume that he was expecting Lynne and I to consummate our relationship. It says a great deal about how little we really communicated that he clearly never imagined it was something that had nearly happened 3 years before.
I’m convinced you would turn out to be a great dad. Not only that, also a much loved dad. But as you said, it would bring a lot of changes… pushed into a marriage… that probably wouldn’t be the best surrounding for a new life to see the light of the world.
I guess you can thank management a little more than you want to admit. You know, when I think of it, you realizing all this, it just proves what kind of responsible and great dad you would have been.
The ‘good old days’ aren’t always that ‘good’, right?
Love
Daniel
Daniel
Thank you, coming from someone who I think is a great Dad that means a lot to me.
I’m probably a bit too quick to put my young self down, force of habit and upbringing I guess.
I for one can’t remember many ‘good old days’ they were mostly horrible with little bright spots from time to time.
Love
malcolm