By Amy Osmond Cook
All signs point to a third marriage for Kim Kardashian, after she revealed her strong feelings for grammy-winning artist Kanye West in a recent interview with Oprah. Kim stated, “I want babies; I want my forever; I want my fairytale.” Kanye appears to be equally smitten. But is he daddy material?
As Dr. David L. Hill describes in his new book, Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro, a father’s role in his child’s life has no equal. Premature babies gain weight better if their dads are involved in their care. Children with involved fathers have better language skills, make better grades and enjoy better self-esteem than those without them. Children whose fathers are involved in their care are less likely to wind up in jail, use drugs and alcohol or become pregnant in their teen years. Fathers are monumental.
Especially considering her recent snafu with Kris Humphries, Kim will want to take her time deciding if Kayne is the right man for her and her future reality stars. Here are three ways to tell if Kanye is ready for Kim’s fairytale life with babies:
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1. How does he treat his mother? Does your guy respect his mother or talk down to her? Does he compliment her or criticize her? The first rule of good fathering is to love and respect his child’s mother, and a boy’s relationship with his mother is usually the model that he will follow in subsequent relationships.
2. Can he go with the flow? As every parent knows, the best-laid plans are often foiled by a baby who won’t sleep, a child who gets sick or a teenager who needs some reassurance. Before you walk down the aisle, a trip to Disneyland with someone’s little terrors may be warranted. If it’s still the happiest place on earth at the end of the day, chances are that your guy is flexible enough to be a good father.
Related: Five Top Tops on How to Find “The One”
3. You are more important to him than his party plans. If your guy is out partying with the guys every night, chances are he’s not ready to settle down and have a dozen kids. Any parent knows that babies determine their own schedules–which (if you’re lucky) consist of twelve hours of sleep. So, unless you plan on getting a night nurse, you’re going to be watching a lot of movies at home.
Only time will tell whether Kanye and Kim will have little fashionistas of their own, but Kanye’s storybook relationship with his mother, who has now passed, bodes well for his future parenting skills. This relationship is memorialized in his song, “Hey Mama”: “Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you/ ‘Cause I’m so proud of you/ Let me tell you what I’m about to do … I appreciate what you allowed for me, I just want you to be proud of me.”
Maybe the third time is a charm.
Amy Osmond Cook, Ph.D. is a faculty associate at Arizona State University, where she teaches Communication and English classes. She is the publisher of Sourced Media Books and co-author of Hope After Divorce and Full Bloom: Cultivating Success. Amy and her husband, Jeff, have five children and look forward to welcoming baby #6 in April 2012. For more information about Amy, please visit amyosmondcook.com.
