What is the ultimate goal in life? The answer is simple: to achieve happiness. Whether it’s finding your dream job, being very rich, creating a family, buying your dream home, buying your dream car, being famous or being a stay at home parent. These are all things that people try to obtain to be “happy.”

Gentlemen! Has your wife or partner ever asked you to watch the kids because she has to go to the store real quick or because she has a girls lunch she needs to attend, or even just to return something at the store? Did you instantly shit your pants in terror?

Look, we all have insecurities. No one on earth is 100% confident in the skin they’re in. I don’t care who tells me different. There is at least one solid thing about your appearance that you would change.

Being a first time parent is a beautiful yet overwhelming time. In between the poopy diapers and waking up in the middle of the night to feed is enough to make you want to scream.

To my soon-to-be baby daddies out there, this blog entry is heavily geared towards you. You need to read, intake, then read it again.

You know those movies you watch where the woman goes into labor and everyone rushes to the hospital and she is breathing heavily and in pain because the child is ready to fly out of that uterus?

Look, we all need a break every now and then, we parents are human too. All the diapers, fussiness, screaming, tantrums, baths, bottles, it can all be very tiring and overwhelming. This is especially true if you are a working parent.

It felt so nice to be outdoors after a year of our “three week stay at home order.” There was a huge sense of normalcy in the air and it felt like things are turning for the better.

So much anxiety came along my wife and I when it came down to whether or not sending Arianna to pre-school at 2 years old is a good idea.

Yes, you read that correctly. Having children is a privilege that should never be taken for granted. If you ask me, having a child is giving yourself a second chance at life.

If I had a chance to have a conversation with myself before I became a first time father, these are the things I would tell myself:

To me one of the things that gave me anxiety about becoming a father was that I never wanted to be one of those dads that work all day and barely sees their kids.

I don’t know about you, but I was never one of those people who took the advice “you have to think positive!” If this was five years ago, 26 year old Vrej would respond to that with a massive eye roll and a very pointy sarcastic comment.

Oh the age-old question; how do you keep your marriage alive after having kids? If you are a parent, you already know that your life will do a complete 180 after you have kids. It is not an exaggeration.

Is it just me or do you get anxiety talking about this subject with other parents? There are so many conspiracy theorist amongst my Armenian community and their thoughts on vaccinating kids that I just shut the subject down when its brought up because it is not something I am interested in debunking or carrying on.

Honestly, we have all done it before. Let’s please not lie to ourselves and say that we don’t judge other parents and the choices they make in raising their kids. We have even gone as far as judging the child in the process.

I think I speak for the entire world when I say that 2020 was the most difficult year. Covid-19 has ruined so many lives. There were so many loved ones lost, so many businesses closed, so many people lost their jobs and their homes.

How does your behavior effect your kids? The answer is simple; every possible way imaginable. As a person who did not grow up in the most ideal situation, It was super important for myself to have kids to right all the wrongs that were done onto me.

As every single soon-to-be first time parent literally ever, I swore I would never allow my child to play on an iPad. Ah, those were the naive days (looks upward reminiscing.)

So, if you’re not Armenian, when reading the title of this blog you might think to yourself “hmm…don’t all dads change diapers?” Now if you ARE Armenian, reading this blog you might think “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”