On Salon.com, Aaron Traister writes about a serious problem we face as fathers—stupidity:
I don’t know if parenting makes you chronically stupid or just temporarily slow, but after nearly four years of child rearing, most of them spent as a stay-at-home dad, my intellect has been dulled to a nub.
Now, I don’t know if this blog is proof of his claim or a repudiation, but it rings true to me. I sometimes look at my 1-year-old daughter, happily fluttering her arms and screaming at her reflection in a mirror, and wonder what exactly I’m supposed to be doing with my brain here.
Yes, I could sit by her side and do likewise. Or I could whip out my iPhone and catch up on the New York Times, Slate and, um, Harper’s, honing my neurons to razor-sharpness while Sasha climbs onto the couch, leaps off and faceplants on the floor.
Who, I ask you, is the stupid one here?
While faceplanting is cute, is doesn’t require razor sharp intellect.
I’m sure it is because i’m not yet on the wagon myself, but I can’t figure out if this is a rhetorical question or not! Maybe I don’t have to wait until I’m a dad to become stupid.