How Much to Protect My Son

Article first published as How Much to Protect My Child on Technorati. 

Buddha back when he was just known as Siddhartha Gautam, his father King Śuddhodana tried to shield him from all human suffering. That's a mighty challenge, especially since Siddhartha was married by age 16. Ah, teenage love. Once, he fatefully encountered human suffering during his travels, it was crushing and depressing. It drove him to an ascetic lifestyle and in search of enlightenment. 

I recently channeled the teachings of Buddha in my parenting.

Yesterday morning began like most others. I woke up and began making breakfast for my son Clark (a nice warm bottle) and myself (hard-boiled eggs and oatmeal). I left Clark square in the middle of the bed. He quite recently figured out  rolling. He can roll in either directions. He's still mastering his technique, so it's not exactly smooth, but he seems to have a great time doing it.  

I walked back to the bedroom, which isn't that far away, to check on Clark. I watched him continue to flip and roll ever closer to the edge. I realized there was a 99% chance that he was going to fall off the bed and onto the floor (about 12 inches below.) This was a watershed parenting moment. What kind of dad am I going to be? I had two choices. I could let him continue as he was and eventually fall or I could place him somewhere safe from harm for the time being.

Product Review: Best App to Track Your Baby

So I recently joined the 21st century, and got a "smarty" phone when I re-upped my cell phone contract.  An HTC Sensation, since you asked.  I don't know how I went so long without one.  My phone is probably more powerful than my grad school laptop I'm using to write this post.  Part of what makes smarty phones so smart is the apps or applications.

My wife and I had previously tried in vain to keep track of all of our son Clark's "achievements." By achievement I mean poops, pees, feedings, naps, weight, etc.  I'd say about half of his"achievements" were never logged.  Anything that happened in the dead of night was immediately forgotten to time.  Once I finally got a smarty phone, I figured there must be an "(Android) App for that."  I started with an app to track his sleeping, then moved on to trying out more comprehensive baby tracking apps.  Here is my assessment/review of the apps available.

Baby Care:

Baby Care is a perfectly fine free program.  It beats paper and pen by a mile. "This software is freeware (ad supported), and developed by a newborn parent and his team(LuckyXmobile)."