Being a parent

Jim Griffieon writes about being a parent in a post titled Gratitude. It starts

Several friends and acquaintances have recently announced their first pregnancies, and I find myself offering the usual pithy niceties and dull truisms, an aloof veteran patting the backs of the new recruits just before they hoist themselves over the top into the maelstrom of shrapnel and armament. Welcome to the trenches. I hope you don't mind the smell of human excrement.
But there's more to it than just that....

Thanks to Nancy Nall for linking to this piece.