The Good Thing About Fathers

Father and son make a great team

One of the good things about Fathers is that they are not Mothers.

Mother will always give that last bite to the kids, she will always pick up those dirty socks and put them in the hamper, and she will spend that extra five minutes to find the sneaker that the rest of the family has long since given up hope of locating. Fathers don’t do these things.

It never occurs to Father that his child couldn’t put his dirty socks in the hamper.  His child not only knows this but, what is equally important, the child knows if he does not find that missing shoe, he will have to go without it, because there is no chance whatsoever that Father is going to run all over the house looking for it.

Diego’s intellectual time with Dad is always special.

It is good that Mothers do them because civilization would probably crumble if Mothers did not do them—but it is equally good that Fathers, by and large, won’t do them.

Another reason that father is wonderful is that he has not altogether lost his concept of time.

Mother lives between the adult world of “there is never enough time” and the kid world of “there is all the time in the world”. When these two worlds meet, chaos ensues. This is the universe in which mother tries to marry “no time” with “all the time in the world”. This is a kind of Never-Never-Land.

In Father’s world, “time is short”, “time is money” and “there is no time like the present”.

Dad and Alex help each other to be fit

When it comes to carrying out a child’s physical program, father doesn’t just do it – he attacks it. How many mothers complain that their husbands can get the physical program done in half the time that they do?

For fathers “there is no time like the present” – this is the no nonsense factor. If it is going to get done with father, it gets done right now or not at all.

Mothers are models of adaptability. They learn how to adapt their bodies for nine months to accommodate the baby. They learn how to share their body to feed the baby. They learn how to go without sleep, and often food, to care for the baby. They are masters of “adapt and handle”.

The good thing about fathers is that they are often models of rigidity. They do not adapt to the baby – at least not to the degree that mother does. Father is wonderful at teaching the child how to adapt to him.

Noah’s dad makes some of the best teaching materials in the world!

When a child is problem-solving with Mother, Mother often finds herself running around the house to get each thing needed to solve the problem while the child waits, sometimes impatiently. Then, more often than not, Mother finds herself actually doing that part of the problem-solving that is tedious or uninteresting for the child while she saves the interesting parts for the child to do himself. Mother permits the child to be in the driver’s seat and acts as a careful navigator so that all goes well – a different approach than father uses.

When a child is problem-solving with father, he doesn’t budge. Instead, the child runs all over the house to get any tools or materials that are needed. Then father allows the child to do the repetitive actions and generally permits the child to watch him while he does the critical actions. Father puts the child in the role of the apprentice and then ensures that the end result is good by doing the difficult parts himself.

The child is just as thrilled with this arrangement with father as he is with working with Mother

Why?

The child quickly learns that mother will give him the opportunity to lead and shape his own destiny while Father teaches him how to adapt and follow directions. Our children are brilliant – they need and want both lessons.

Dad keeps the “grow up” factor front and center. It is almost always Father who decides that it’s time for the kid to sleep in his own bed, pick up his own socks, and find his own sneakers. For Mother it’s about care and nurture and let’s be honest here, sometimes it is really hard not to help a child who has had to work so hard to do whatever one else does easily.

Dad has the “you can do it!confidence in Binck.

The Good Lord and Mother Nature certainly had a fine idea when they invented Fathers.

One of the best things about fathers is that they are not mothers. They provide the perfect counterbalance for mothers.

We have often said that mothers make the best mothers, but we should also add that fathers make the very best fathers.

On the worst moment of their worst day, mother and father will do better with their child than anyone else in the world.

On the best moment of their best day, they will prove that mother and father, together with their children, make the most tender, tough, and admirable union that there is or ever was.

Dad has a special way to coach Gabriela.

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