Advice for my brother.

As the mother of an 18 year old and soon to be 21 year old, I have been thinking about what kind of advice to give my brother - who will become a dad in the next couple of months. As an older sister I feel that I should have some sort of wisdom to give the musician and his wife (never mind that she has 3 sisters to give her advice also!)

The world is full of people who want to give advice to young parents - you must . . . . breastfeed, never use formula, only use formula sparingly, use cloth diapers, never have a child that misbehaves in public (hahaha), never give your child sweets, make your own baby food etc. The list is long and full of possible life long guilt feelings.

So I wanted to think of something that I felt meaningful. There had to be some thoughtful words that my brother has not heard yet from anyone. An experience that I had that he need not repeat. But what?

I have come up with 2.

The first is to keep your deadbolt locks on your outside doors locked at all times and wear the keys in your pocket - keep them out of the lock. Children learn how to open a door faster than you ever imagine they will. . I thought that my boys would have to be a certain age before they could handle a door. Wrong for both of them. Luckily they were both in the front yard.

The second is to never leave your child and his friend out on the front porch painting great works of art with orange paint while you run into the house for just a second. Enough said.