OK, busy, busy day, but want to sneak in a Fatherhood Friday post for Dad-Blogs.com before midnight, so I’ll keep this one short and sweet (hopefully not too sappy though). As we spent some quality family time celebrating a state holiday today, I learned something new. My son hates water. Granted he’s only seventeen months old and far from set in his ways, but there’s no doubt about it, he is terrified of any body of water larger than a bathtub.

OK, I’m sure most of you have already started to wonder, “where are you going with this”, or may be thinking, “lots of kids have a fear of water”. This is true and I realize a fear of the water is a pretty normal thing, but here’s what freaked me out as I came to this realization. He is our fourth child, but the first one to have this particular fear. We’ve dealt with the fear of monsters, fear of the dark, fear of the doctor, fear of the dentist, fear of separation, fear of knife wielding Frenchmen (true story), even a fear of Disney movies, but never with the first three children, a fear of water.

Now where I live having four children is far from unusual, in fact I’d say it’s pretty close to average for these parts, but even so I feel like with child number four much of the mystery of parenting should be over. I figured he might have the occasional quirk, but more or less be a combination of his siblings, boy was I wrong. This child eats things his siblings would never dream of touching to their lips, he’s skinny where they were chunky, he’s stayed blonde by the time their hair darkened up, the list goes on and on. This parenting gig isn’t easy is it?

Tonight as I sat here watching him sleep, a fear of the unknown washed over me as I realized all the things this child will teach me over the next decades as we face his challenges and overcome his personal set of obstacles in life That fear dissolved quickly though as I realized that although each child being unique presents a sometimes difficult set of challenges, it’s also what makes each child so irreplaceable. This baby boy and his three siblings each have their own personality and own strengths that make our little family whole. OK, it got a little cheesy, but it’s late ;-)

By the way, if anyone has some good suggestions for helping a toddler deal with a fear of the water, I’m all ears…