by Sara McGinnis posted in Parenting

There are those who write about parenthood with rose-colored glass on, and then there's Matt Coyne. It's not that he doesn't love being a father, it's just that sometimes babies are ridiculous.
Matt is the creative force behind Man vs Baby, a Facebook blog about his adventures as dad to a tot named Charlie. To give you a little taste of Matt's way of looking at things, here's how he reflected on the longest year of his life (also known as his first year as a father): "Twelve months ago I had a few wrinkles, a few grey hairs...and now I?m ageing so fast that, by the time Charlie?s ten I?m going to look like Gandalf?s ball-sack."
Matt, who is raising Charlie with his partner Lyns, went on to write: "Aside from my physical wreckage, I am also mentally coming apart at the seams, I am so sleep-deprived that occasionally I hallucinate that my long-dead great grandma Rose is having a shit in our en-suite. And this lack of sleep, coupled with poor diet and the ongoing nightmare of kids TV, means that my mind is basically mashed potato...and on a day to day basis I am incapable of anything more than blinking or shouting at the toaster."
Matt on developing a bit of a protective streak:
"Just last week I punched a seagull. In the face.
It's not something I'm proud of. We were enjoying a day at the beach and as Charlie was enjoying his ice cream, he was dive-bombed by an aggressive seagull, and I instinctively reacted and...