Happy Birthday to The Heir

21 years ago today I became a father.

21 years ago on May 29 1987, The Heir was born, our first child, our eldest son.

I remember it clearly, every detail.

Watching his birth was amazing, my first experience of witnessing the miracle of a life beginning.

(We video-taped the birth but The Heir has never watched it!)

I was over-whelmed with emotion and a sense of responsibility, that I had played a part in creating this new life, this wonderful little boy, and my life would never be the same again as a result.

He has grown up and become a man, surviving our over-enthusiastic and at times heavy-handed parenting. The pitfalls of being the first-born! There are plenty of things I'd do differently if I had a second chance. Not that we were terrible parents, but we were pretty serious and earnest, and The Heir had to blaze a trail through our mistakes and shortcomings.

He'd be the first to agree that Sport Boy has a much easier time of it by comparison as we have become more relaxed and less stressed about raising our children.

It has been a pretty quiet day as far as celebrations go, just the family for dinner tonight and coffee at Eagle Bay with his mum and sister at lunchtime. We'll organise something a little more auspicious soon although it does have echoes of my own 21st birthday which was spent in the Spanish town of San Sebastian, riding around on the back of a motorbike with an English guy I'd become friends with. No big party, no embarrassing stories, no drunken revelry or rites of passage, just me and a mate and a motorbike.

We are very proud of The Heir and are glad to have him living back at home with us at present. He spent the best part of the last 4 years living away, in Perth, Tasmania and England which has helped him to grow up, mature and become quite independant. He is a great son and a terrific young man and we love him very much.

Happy Birthday Son.