Age: 62
Number of Children: Two, ages 35 and 33, 34 on Friday.
Occupation: Controller of small commercial carpet sales and installation contractor.
What is the best part of being a father?
Watching each phase in the development of your child, living in that moment.
What is the toughest challenge?
I thought about this for a long time. I'm not sure that any one thing really stuck out. There is the one about maintaining ones composure when your child makes a scene in public (I'm sure I was not too successful at that) and the trying of ones patience, but perhaps the biggest challenge would be not to worry too much about funding college educations or lasting stigmas I may leave with an impressionable 3, 4, or 5 year old.
How has fatherhood changed since you were a child?
I don't think fatherhood has changed from when I was a child. I think fathers get stretched in the same directions now as they did then. Making a living and making a life. There are countless demands made upon ones time.
How were you different father than your father?
When I was growing up, I had, on more than one occasion, the thought how I would do things differently with my children. Yet, looking back, I think I was a lot like my father in many ways. After all, we draw clues from our fathers and don't even realize it. The one thing I hope I wasn't was not being quite as aloof as my father.
How did fatherhood affect your relationship with your father?
I felt as though I was now an equal, that there was an acceptance in our relationship of the persons we had become. Rereading that I don't want to suggest that I wasn't accepted as a child, just that as a child I was a child.
Number of Children: Two, ages 35 and 33, 34 on Friday.
Occupation: Controller of small commercial carpet sales and installation contractor.
What is the best part of being a father?
Watching each phase in the development of your child, living in that moment.
What is the toughest challenge?
I thought about this for a long time. I'm not sure that any one thing really stuck out. There is the one about maintaining ones composure when your child makes a scene in public (I'm sure I was not too successful at that) and the trying of ones patience, but perhaps the biggest challenge would be not to worry too much about funding college educations or lasting stigmas I may leave with an impressionable 3, 4, or 5 year old.
How has fatherhood changed since you were a child?
I don't think fatherhood has changed from when I was a child. I think fathers get stretched in the same directions now as they did then. Making a living and making a life. There are countless demands made upon ones time.
How were you different father than your father?
When I was growing up, I had, on more than one occasion, the thought how I would do things differently with my children. Yet, looking back, I think I was a lot like my father in many ways. After all, we draw clues from our fathers and don't even realize it. The one thing I hope I wasn't was not being quite as aloof as my father.
How did fatherhood affect your relationship with your father?
I felt as though I was now an equal, that there was an acceptance in our relationship of the persons we had become. Rereading that I don't want to suggest that I wasn't accepted as a child, just that as a child I was a child.
Thanks Dad.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're in the active parenting years, one doesn't give too much thought to big picture "Fatherhood" issues. You just try to do your best and get through the day.
ReplyDelete