goo goo and ga ga talk from daddy

Dear baby( i haven't decided what to call you yet),

Yesterday John called me. He is a friend of mine from school. He told me of how he had just returned from his Kwanjula in Uganda. He barely knew the girl two months before he came here. He entrusted his close cousin to search the hills of Western Uganda(and Kampala hills too as long as the girl's blood flowed with that of the Ankore cow). When she was found, she was just like the times of old. Worldwise yet innocent(in otherwords "she was a virgin" he said), could get along with his mother, was a lady, humble and intelligent. I was in shock not because she had all these qualities and yet had been "untainted" by the evil world, it was more because he was one of those "hot fish" in school and i thought he was still "working the field" for some time. I must have sounded drowsy and so he asked me if i was "paying"(in adult speak my dear little one, that means he asked if i was still intoxicated from the vodka i used to drink before i knew you were coming). I dazedly said yes even though in retrospect i recall it was 5pm and i was sober because i had been working all day on our little shop's financial records for the month end.

When you come, i will show you how it runs on God's miracle and skill. When you are born and older, I can't wait to show you the other miracles of numbers and accounts.

But where was i? Ah, John. We went on to discuss the merits of arranged marriages. He thinks they work great because afterall, don't our mother's have sixth senses and would they want unhappiness for us in a choice of a mate. Would they give us a snake when we asked for a fish?
The bible uses such a phrase to describe the goodness of God(my little one, that is the first book you will read, it contains basic instructions before leaving earth). God? Instructions? Leaving earth? But you are not even here you say. Why would we need instructions, are we robots you ask? And why then would you want to come only to leave a short while later?

Oh baby, you are too smart for your own unknown as yet years. Who taught you to ask such deeply theological questions that get daddy thinking? Admit it, those are your daddy's gene's. huhh?

I want to promise you one thing though. Whether you are a boy or a girl, i will do good to ensure that i teach you to love maths and science, unlike your future nana, oh how she detests math!

Now baby,strap on your seat belt because Daddy is about to kiss Kansas goodbye. Ga ga goo goo talk as you will say to me when you are born but here goes daddy:

Dads have a major impact on the degree of interest their daughters develop in math. That's one of the findings of a long-term University of Michigan study that has traced the sources of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance.

In a study she presented recently at a campus meeting, Davis-Kean and colleagues analyzed how parents' values and attitudes affect children's math performance and later interest, and how these attitudes vary by the child's gender. They used data from a longitudinal study of more than 800 children and a large group of their parents that began in 1987 and continued through 2000.
They found that parents provided more math-supportive environments for their sons than for their daughters, including buying more math and science toys for the boys. They also spent more time on math and science activities with their sons than with their daughters.
Davis-Kean and colleagues, including the late Janis Jacobs of Pennsylvania State University, Martha Bleeker of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and U-M psychologists Jacquelynne Eccles and Oksana Malanchuk, also found that parents' attitudes, particularly stereotypes they hold about whether math and science are more important for boys than for girls, have a significant effect on their children's later math achievement, and even on their eventual career choices.They found that girls' interest in math decreases as their fathers' gender stereotypes increase, whereas boys' interest in math increases as their fathers' gender stereotypes increase.
"Fathers' gender stereotypes are very important in supporting—or in undermining—daughters' choices to pursue training in math and science," Davis-Kean said.

Enough goo goo talk I think i know what i want to call you!
If you are a boy, i will call you- Gafali. After my own daddy's daddy. And if you are a girl i will call you Manjeri after my mummy's (your nana) aunt. I always liked Manjeri. It sounds simple and so "good old days".

But then on second thought, i don't want them laughing at you in the school yard saying your name is from the dinosaur era. Oh how nasty some kids can be.
This i know would dent your confidence perhaps irreversibly. So i think i will wait until you come and then i will decide but then i won't tell you about this until many years later when you start going to school.
I cant wait for your first day to school! I will wake up 2 hours just to look at you still sleeping and to get on my knees to pray for you and all your school years for you my baby are when you come shall be a gift from my God and oh how you will give me a purpose to live and love!

It's now evening and it's getting cold. Where daddy lives, it gets cold in the evenings even when its a season called summer when the sun should be out and it should be warm.

The cold makes daddy stay in bed and then makes daddy think. Right now he is thinking of these arranged marriages things.

Perhaps our grand parents and ancestors were right after all. With all the divorce rates of today. Relationships starting and ending even before running their full run- of- the- mill. People loving half heartedly and not willing to give up all for love, for spouse.
I wonder about these things. What do you think my little one?

Baby, baby, are you sleeping? Just when daddy needs you most? Oh daddy forgot, you are perhaps tired and think that is enough ga ga talk for today.

Perhaps daddy should ask his online friends.

References:
University Of Michigan (2007, June 25). How Dads Influence Their Daughters' Interest In Math. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 1, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/06/070624143002.htm