Congratulations. My daughter is nearly three and I understand your joy, your awe, and your exhaustion.

The smart-aleck in me wants to answer your question with, "well, the moments leading to conception might be a little early, as well as self-defeating--er--I mean, inappropriate and/or distracting; however, any time after that would be just fine...provided you ensure that the desire to learn Perl is his and not yours."

I don't mean that to be offensive; I do mean the latter bit. In watching my daughter grow, I've noticed that she is her own little person. She has her own likes, dislikes, and desires. While my wife and I work very hard to curb her more selfish desires--and to teach her the finer arts of listening, sharing, and being nice, we also try to make sure that she (my daughter) knows that she can do anything she wants to do, if she's willing to work hard enough and (as Elmo says) "keep trying." Should she ever show an interest in what I do for a living, I will happily show her what I can. (I've already built her a dual boot Win98/Linux box.)

I can't speak for my wife, but I do it because my father is very good with cars. He grew up on a farm in the Midwest and the ability to tinker with engines was an absolute necessity. He loves to tinker with them until they work and tried very hard to instill the same love of engine tinkering in me. Put bluntly, he failed. I can't stand working on cars. I can do it if I have to, but much prefer to pay someone else to deal with it.

IOW, it's good to let your child share in your joys, but don't forget to encourage him to develop his own and then participate in them as fervently as he wants to help you. (And he will get to the "I want to help" stage...it won't last, but it will happen.)

I'm sure you're already planning this, so please forgive the fears of a square peg someone once tried to punch into a round hole.

And, please, before you get to chess, don't forget to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors, " "Checkers," "Tag," "Peekaboo," and whatever else he wants to play. Children are beautiful creatures. Let them enjoy (and take time to enjoy and reflect on) their childhood and their innocence, too.

--f