Offspring

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
H. L. Mencken

Up until about 6 months ago I had a habit of saying to people with kids "Hey, how's your wife and offspring?". Usually this was meet with some degree of surprise or at least some degree of shock. The word offspring is usually reserved for animals, actually I think of an opossum when I say it. I am not really too sure what made me use that expression in the first place but I enjoyed the reaction it got from people so I kept using it. No one ever really asked me to stop calling their kids baby opossums nor did they say they were offended. I guess it was kind of humorous to the parent opossum as well.
With the birth of our daughter I have stopped posing this question. It is kind of insulting and a little bit on the obnoxious side. I have also begun to question a lot of my own pre-parenthood beliefs about: breastfeeding in public (only in an emergency), kids out to dinner (depends on the kid, and the parents), kids on airplanes (still am not a fan but can see the need a little bit better now)and kids throwing tantrums (I haven't experienced this yet but I am more forgiving to those parents who have to deal with it).
I guess you could say that I am losing the eyes of a single person and gaining the eyes of a father. These eyes take some time and patience to develop. I won't see as clearly as a father with more experience but with time they will improve. I will begin to understand what my parents went through, what other parents go through. More importantly I will begin to sympathize with other parents out there, alone, trying to deal with a screaming, kicking, crying child without losing their minds.
Hopefully, I can avoid those people who don't see through a parent's eyes. Maybe someone, somewhere won't glare at me when my daughter cries in church, throws food at a restaurant or screams on the whole flight from Boston to Las Vegas. Maybe.