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Thought for the Day

August 20th, 2007 · 7 Comments

The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man.  The end product of child raising is not the child but the parent. 

~Frank Pittman, Man Enough

Tags: New Dads · Thoughts

7 responses so far ↓

  • Leah Maclean // Aug 20, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    Outstanding!!

  • themolk // Aug 20, 2007 at 10:04 pm

    Man enough indeed… ;)

    I agree with the final statement. I read a paraphrase of this probably somewhere that said when your child is all grown up, the evidence of your hard work is who you are (as a parent and human being).

    I guess that means that when the kids are all grown up, who they are is their problem! ;)

  • Pete // Aug 20, 2007 at 10:14 pm

    Love that paraphrase Molkster! I think though that our kids become someone else’s problem, usually their life-partner’s! :)

  • Joe // Aug 22, 2007 at 1:50 am

    Thoughts of refiner’s fire and such. This is an optimistic thought and it implies that I’ll be really good at parenting and and personhood by the time my youngest (now 20 months) is grown and flown. Maybe. But I’m not holding my breath.

  • Pete // Aug 22, 2007 at 9:40 am

    Heh heh, I take the quote with a grain or two of salt. If we’re not having any effect on the adult we are cocreating, then we need to question our relationship with them.

    Then again, maybe this explains why grandparents so often have more fun with kids than parents do ….

  • Chris // Aug 22, 2007 at 11:19 am

    Ooo I like that one!!!
    BTW you’ve been tagged/awarded a Courageous Blogger award!
    http://pinkapple.typepad.com/apple_tart/2007/08/i-used-to-say-h.html

  • Free Canon PowerShot SD750 7.1 Megapixel » Some Make Money // Aug 28, 2007 at 5:28 pm

    [...] to what he is experiencing with Alex. Today I read a quote from another favorite blogger of mine freakedoutfathers.com and I think it is something all parents should read. The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t [...]

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