I am just trying to be a good, protective mother. I want to give Bertie as normal a childhood as possible while preserving his privacy.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
For now, for this year, I need to be a good mother.
Since I've had a son, I want to be around to see him grow up.
My father was a gruff Irishman who was unable to express feelings and always insisted we be tough. Being a parent, for me, means creating what I didn't have. I want my children to feel love and be able to express it.
No matter what, it is very tricky and difficult just to be a good parent at all. I have a lot of help. And for that I'm very grateful.
My mother had a very difficult childhood, having seen her own mother kill herself. So she didn't always know how to be the nurturing mother that we all expect we should have.
I want to be remembered as a loving, understanding father.
I wanted to get a taste of what it would feel like to be a mum. I've always had a strong maternal instinct and ideally I would love one of my own.
Fortunately, I'm married to someone who's a pretty excellent parent!
The challenging part of parenting for me is to make sure that an individual person is an individual and not some sort of cookie-cutter version of me. At the same time, I want to make sure that I impart my sense of the world as an adult.
I'd like my son to remember me as a good dad.