The Manly Art of Fatherhood

Hey Dads,
I have been reflecting lately on what it means to be a dad, all too often I am confronted with the image that are portrayed by Hollywood and the television, I find that I am very disturbed by the fact that men and fathers are all too often portrayed as have just abandoned dragging their knuckles on the ground. Barely able to take care of them selves let along a child, with this kind of constant pressure it is no wonder that dads in our country are seen as kind of a joke. The idea that there is a manly art to being a father has been very effectively driven out of our society.
In my own experience, I have found that becoming a father actually helped define me as a man. There have been times, that I would be interacting with other men my own age and younger, and feel more like their junior, simply because I did not have the same life experience’s as they did, and because I was an outsider I didn’t every really feel like a man. Then I became a father, and wow did my outlook on the world change. Suddenly I felt as though I was a man, I had contributed something to the world, not just ideas, but two new members of the human race. Two boys who will grow and perhaps lead this great nation when they become men, what a responsibility, I suddenly realized that teaching them the ways of the world was only part of what it meant to be a father. If these two were really going to grow and learn to be men, I was going to have to be the model of the man I hope they will be.
In this one realization I suddenly understand that being a father is not just about teaching children the skills and knowledge that they will need for a life time, it is having the courage to be a man in today’s world. One of the ways that I have found to do that, and I challenge others to do so as well, is learn and take on the challenge of attachment parenting. It is not easy, but I am continuing daily to find out what it means to be a man, through the raising of my sons.

A Fellow Father