Charley Goes to Sibling Class

Welcome to Mitch’s First Ever Blog Post.

Yeah, I wrote this.

Consider yourself warned.

So Charley had sibling class tonight. The class is designed to help 3 – 7 year olds learn about their new baby brother or sister. It was also designed to remind fathers of just how hard this baby stuff is. If “edutainment” is the mixture of education and entertainment then I would call this “edu-your life is going to completely change but let’s have fun talking about it-tainment”.

We were one of the last couples to arrive, so when we walked in the moms were sitting in chairs while the dads were on the floor with their children. The nurse pleasantly greeted us, asked us to spell Charley’s name, and then gave him a misspelled name tag. Charley is illiterate - so no harm, no foul.

Charley and I took our place on the floor while the nurse introduced him to the other children – two other little boys, and then two little girls who arrived a few minutes later. Charley was the youngest and cutest kid there. I was the least awkward looking father. At this point we were 2 for 2.

The class started with pictures of a baby in various phases – in the womb (when it looks like a shrimp cocktail), in the womb again (slightly resembling a human), right after the birth (looking like this guy), and a few months later (when the baby is modeling for Gerber). The nurse went on to explain amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord to a group of children under 10. Yeah, seriously. The kids thought it was cool in a “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!!????” kind of way.

Next he practiced holding and swaddling a semi-realistic but also really creepy doll. The nurse described the process as making a “baby burrito”. I wanted to ask if the baby burrito came with baby cinnamon twists, and baby nachos.

He then watched “Sibling Silly”. It starred a “silly professor” dressed in a curly hair piece, a white lab coat, coke-bottled glasses, and a big orange bow tie. He actually WAS very silly, and probably very disappointed in the direction his acting career had gone.

The Sibling Silly video didn’t really teach Charley how to be silly. In fact, they really should have titled the movie “Sibling Learns How to Adjust to Major Life Change Without Completely Freaking Out”. He learned how to hold a baby, how to talk to a baby, how to play with a baby, and how a baby eats. The video had some clips of breastfeeding, which I thought he handled pretty well. I caught him looking at Beck’s boobs once or twice after that – I don’t think he knows how to feel about them now. I remember having the same experience the first time I saw the breastfeeding video.

After the video was over Charley made a birthday card for the baby. Charley’s card included several Ninja Turtle stickers, and some wonderful drawings. It was fun watching the kids make their cards, not only was it cute but I got a sense of early cave drawings – a lot of scribbles on the walls and floor.

Overall, it was a good evening and the best part…..it ended with Frostys!!!