Dadhood. Not Fatherhood...Dadhood. It's hard to think of myself as a father just yet. Fathers are..."old." At least I hope I'm not a father yet by that definition. At 27, I shouldn't be. When my wife Heidi gave birth to our first son two years ago, I experienced a new paradigm in my life. No longer did I see myself as a young married guy just out of college. Now I had to face up to the reality that I was "Husband" and "Dad."
Father seems to be a term more suited to being used in the 1950's. We can all picture the 11-year-old boy entering the living room wearing some not quite long enough slacks and sweater vest carrying a baseball bat over his shoulder with a glove on the end. In the easy chair sits "Father." He's always dressed to the nines with wing tips and necktie. Usually he's reading the paper; perhaps smoking a pipe. Son addresses "Father."
Now multiply that by 2 and keep up the good work. I spoke to someone recently
and then mentioned that whenever they were sick in the night as a child and called
for someone it was her dad who always came. What a precious memory that is for a
person to have. Must have been a real “dad”.
As the Father of the Dad who wrote the article, it reminds me of one thing not covered adequately in the article and that is the pride that a father has for his son. Although by passage of time I guess I have become Father rather than Dad, its nice to be called Dad! Also, I promise to stop trying to act cool!