Before Owen, my fastest reflex was hitting “Skip Ad” on YouTube. Now I can catch a falling sippy cup, block a table corner with my shin, and intercept a full-speed crawl toward the dog bowl — all in the same second.
Something activates the moment the hospital lets you leave with an actual baby and no instruction manual.
Owen was seven months old, sitting in his high chair, and he sneeze-launched a loaded spoon at the wall. I caught it. Mid-air. Without looking up from my phone. My wife saw it. Nothing in my life will ever be that cool again.
The downside? The reflex doesn’t have an off switch. I flinched at a coworker’s coffee mug last week because it was too close to the table edge. No child was present.
What’s your greatest dad reflex save? The wilder the better.