What It’s like to be 22 and a Godfather

The first time I held my godchild in my hands!

It’s been close to a year, since my best friend came over and she told me I was going to be a Godfather. In that moment, I was at a loss for words and I had to sit down because I couldn’t believe the news! My friend who I’ve known for 2 years was going to be a mother and I was going to be an uncle. It was both exciting and a little terrifying.

I never expected to be a father of anything until my 30’s when I started a family of my own, but here I was being told I would be the god daddy of Zeke and Marty Love's child in 9 months and I haven’t even finished college yet. I loved that she picked me to be the godfather, but I couldn't help but think how I was going to pull this off

You see, I’m not the best with kids. I’m not sure how to really handle them and have absolutely zero experience taking care of another human being. I know a lot of people who play and take care of babies and young kids is like second nature to them. I, however, was not blessed with this gift of being among the youth.

I was always awkward around young kids. The younger they were the more awkward and standoffish I became. I am especially awkward when someone hands me their child to hold. I never got how someone could just hand their beloved, fresh out of the oven child to a person they don’t even know like its no big deal. That little person just stares at you with their big ol’ eyes and I’m just like “uhhh...sup?” Despite these hurdles, I still wanted to live up to the Godfather name.

Godfather, to me, isn’t just a glorified title for uncle. A person can have a thousand uncles, but they can only have one Godfather. It carries a certain amount of weight to me, almost a sense of great power. And as you know, with great power, comes great responsibility. So, I tried to prep myself as best I could for the baby's arrival, so I could be the best godfather I could be.

However, there’s not really anything out their to prepare you for godfatherhood. There’s plenty of books and resources for expecting mother’s and father’s, but I could not find a single book for expecting goddaddies. Before I knew it, Isabella Renne Love was here and I remember holding little Izzie in my arms in the hospital thinking, “Ok, I’m going to try to take care of you as best I can, so bear with me.”

I hope I can be just a little bit like this man here!

I really want to take care of her and be someone that she can rely on and come to if she needs anything, besides her parents of course. I guess I want to kind of be her own Uncle Ben in a way. To give her love and wisdom on how this whole life thing works, but without the whole tragic death and heartbreak thing. Unless that means she’ll become the next Spider-woman. Then I’ll be willing to make that sacrifice, but I stick with wisdom and love for now. I don’t know how much I can offer, since I’m only 22 and haven’t nearly experienced everything that life has to offer me, but I’m hoping I can fill in the gaps along the way for her.

I couldn't believe I was holding another Love in my arms only 10 minutes after her being born!

During Izzie’s first couple of weeks of entering the world, I was scared to hold her or even look her in the eye. She was this cute little bundle of joy and I was honestly afraid if I held her I was going to break her or she would just burst out crying uncontrollably. Whenever someone handed her to me I would hold her out and look at her as if I was analyzing her, trying to figure out what this thing was and how to make her work like she was some kind of electronic device or contraption that came without instructions. It was clear in those moments, that the concept of new life was still foreign to me.

I had some trouble in the beginning, figuring out how to hold her because the only thing that I held in my arms that was even remotely close to a small human infant was my PlayStation 4. She would squirm and look at me with this concerning look wondering who this man was and why was he holding me in his arms.

Sometimes I wondered if I was going to be good godfather because I’ve never dealt with kids before. Honestly, I wondered if the kid would even like me at all. But, when I found out my best friends were having a baby together, I wanted to give this whole kid thing a shot again. Really try to make an effort to connect to the tiny people. I thought that since the baby will be new to interacting with people and I’m still relatively new and rusty at this whole kid thing, we could learn how to bond with one another together.

I have to say, so far, it hasn’t been too shabby! I got the whole holding thing down and I feel comfortable being with her for long amounts of time. After a little trial and error we finally reached an understanding and now when I hold her she’s calm and wonderful.

Sometimes, I’ll walk around with Izzie in my arms and talk to her about random things that’s going on in my life. She’ll then look up at me with those cute brown eyes of her listening intently to everything I say. The cool thing about babies is that they are awesome listeners, so if you ever feel like venting about something just grab a young child and gab away!

Apparently, I’m pretty great at feeding and burping Izzie. I don’t like to brag or anything, but I have about 22 years of experience eating and burping, so I guess you could say I'm an expert at this sort of thing!

I’m still new to this whole thing, so I’m still trying to figure out how to take care of her. I like holding her in my arms, but sometimes I’m still afraid if I hold her wrong I’ll break her. I’m trying to avoid that awkward situation when someone gives you their child and you return it disassembled with zero explanation. That’s always a weird conversation to have.

I’m also still working my way up to changing her, but man can that baby poop! The few times I’ve seen her being changed, it’s looked like a warzone took place in her diaper. I thought my poops were bad, but Izzie’s definitely got me beat. So, yea, I am in absolutely no rush to change her until I least get a Hazmat suit first.

I got a long way to go to figure this whole godfather thing out, but I think I’m on the right track. After spending a good part of the day with her yesterday, I’m sure things will all turn out for the better. I had fun spending time with little Izzie and her mom taking care of her and talking with her. I feel comfortable with her and she feels comfortable with me.

Zeke was excited when he heard Izzie was coming and was ecstatic when she finally came 9 months later.

I feel like I’m getting better at handling kids more and more as I spend time with her and I’m, slowly but surely, feel like I’m walking into this Godfather role. But, I wouldn’t be getting anywhere if it wasn’t for Issabella’s awesome dad and killer mom training me to take care of her. In fact, I just want to take a moment to give props to Zeke and Marty for being great parents. I know the news of Issabella’s arrival was a surprise for them, but they have been dominating in the parent department, especially Marty.

She's a strong woman and an awesome mom for taking care and loving Izzie the way that she does <3.

She’s home with the kid a lot dealing with poops, tears, and lack of sleep, but she loves that kid to death and it shows. She is a great mom and a great friend and I’m thankful for having both her and Zeke bestowing their knowledge and experience to me. I honestly believe they’re helping me be a better godfather, which is just awesome!

I look forward to the next time I get to see Izzie because I honestly do love the kid. I know this because I constantly want to spend time with her and buy her a bunch of nerdy baby swag. So, I guess she’s officially my friend, instead of just by godchild, which is a cool feeling!

I wanted to leave with this one thing. If you’re like me, and don’t think you’re much of a kid person, I would just say, give it a chance. Even if you tried a hundred times before, give it one more chance. You might be surprised on how a kid can turn your life around.