Thought for the Day
August 20, 2007
Filed under Parenting & Family Posts
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
Outstanding!!
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!
Love that paraphrase Molkster! I think though that our kids become someone else’s problem, usually their life-partner’s!
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.
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 ….
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
[...] 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 [...]