On the occasion of Father's day, which is getting closer and closer, we are doing these days the Special Blogger Dads, with interviews with some of the best-known parents in the network, who usually tell us things about their lives in their respective blogs since they are parents.
Today we have Rafa Esteve, who in 2004, just released his fatherhood, opened the blog Be a first-time father in which he has collected his experiences. He stopped being a first-time father with his second son in 2007 but continues to deepen that stage of the parents' life, with a new perspective full of humor and advice.
Rafa is a technical engineer in industrial design and teaches and consulting in various fields related to Web 2.0. Other great hobbies are drawing, comics, movies, music, rugby and plants. He has published his book "Memories of a first-time father" and soon we will have a second title. Let's see what he tells us about all this.
What led you to start the blog?
My daughter Mar was born ten years ago, and at that time I had just moved from Valencia to Castellón, so, since there was no Facebook, I decided to write an email the day before delivery with a copy to all my friends and family telling them nervous that I was and the insecurities I had on the matter. A few hours after delivery I wrote another bomb email and rightly, one of my friends suggested the idea of writing a blog. This way it would be generated a kind of road book that was making its way to all who came behind. So without thinking twice, I opened a Blogger account and changed the way I communicated with my family and friends; instead of passing them the full text, I would pass them a link to the blog article that also included images and links to other pages.
What has the blog contributed to you?
At first it became a discharge valve, since I was one of the first of my group of friends to become a father and neither my partner nor I did any kind of preparation course for childbirth. Everything was new, surprising and extremely intense. From the zero minute I felt that this was the most intense experience of my life, so writing became a way of telling the world all the insecurities, fears, surprises and sensations that I discovered every minute I spent with my daughter.
What do you like to do with your children?
My daughter is already ten years old and she is a little woman, I really like to chat with her and I really enjoy listening to her when she tells me the things that go through her mind. My son Leo is seven and I have a blast playing with him, it seems that among boys we understand each other better when doing the brute. When I really enjoy with my children is when we draw together. From there come true works of art! But when I really enjoy them, it's drawing. We sit all three at the same table and take out all the artillery: pencils, watercolors, brushes, waxes ... We do not define any theme and each one draws what they want and with the style they want ...
How was the experience of writing your books about fatherhood?
The experience has been amazing, because the first book, "Memories of a first-time father" and the positioning on the internet of the blog when you do the search "first-time father" in Google, led me to write a second book for the Larousse publishing house (which will go on sale on May 1), in which I have been able to tell many More of my experiences including 32 drawings. Listening to people say that they have read it at a stretch or that they have been wanting more has been a fabulous experience. We have sold our first book in Santiago, Chile, where it seems difficult to find books that address this issue from the point of view of parents and I have also had the opportunity to make several monologues talking about the subject of first-time parents ... A challenge!
How do you think parenting has changed 30 years ago compared to that of parents now?
The radical change in 30 years to this part has certainly been that men have "started changing diapers" and to assume that the upbringing and education of children is up to both, 50% and without conditions. In Spain we continue in diapers on these issues, but there are more and more movements, associations and parents struggling to get what seemed like a utopia to become a reality.
We thank Rafa, from the blog Being a first-time father that has participated so kindly in our Special Papas Bloggers with whom we are getting to know the men behind each blog dedicated to parenthood a little better.
