Hold that thought

So for my first post, I thought I address a common fear many men without children - especially ones like myself (before Elias of course) who were the youngest sibling and/or have few nieces/nephews.

That fear - holding babies.

For some reason, many men are uncomfortable, nervous, fearful of holding relatives' and friends' babies. Is it we just don't know what we're doing? It's not built into are DNA like it is in women? Or we fear holding a baby comfortably (or uncomfortably), telegraphs to our significant other our deep down willingness (or hesitation) about having one of our own?

Well, I'm not the one in the family with a pysch degree - so I won't fathom a theory. All I know is it's common.

Some friends were over last night for dinner and we asked the husband if he wanted to hold Elias - his wife interjected that he's afraid to hold babies. Well, we quickly convinced him to go ahead and do it anyway. So he sat down on the floor - I guess minimizing the potential fall distance from 5 feet to 1 foot - and held Elias for a couple minutes. Our friend did just fine - he didn't drop Elias, who actually looked quite comfortable.

So don't be like I used to be - hold a baby... it's easy!

It can also be plenty smelly, but that's a whole other issue.

Any other baby-holding phobes (current or reformed) out there? Tell me your funniest baby-holding story.

- Brad