Father’s Day is coming time to kick back and relax and take it easy for a day. Ok yeah, I hear you. Your rolling your eyes and saying things like, “Yeah right” or “what world do you live in?” No, because Father’s day is like any other Sunday except you may get a gift or two. Now from time to time, I do like to reinforce the reason dads have been around for so long. We are not like many other animals that just spread their seed and mosey down the road. Yes, there are guys who do that but those guys aren’t dads. Those guys are nothing more than grown boys.
So what makes a great dad?
Great dads are everywhere. They are actually not that exciting though they have incredible skills in telling jokes and entertaining kids. We are there to show our kids the other side of the coin. We provide everything from discipline and boundaries to adventurous spirits and to have an inquisitive nature. We show our sons how to be tough and we show our daughters how they want to be treated.
A great dad is one that is a masculine father. A man who knows he isn’t perfect but is still trying each day to make himself just 1% better. A great dad leaves the cave each day and goes out and provides for his family. He gets the hard tasks done and still allows for himself to dream and pursue the idea he deems important.
Fathers do sacrifice for their family but they know when they have to let their family struggle. They can’t do it all for them and they see the need for life lessons to be learned the hard way because Life is the ultimate teacher.
Dads are often iron hands in a velvet glove. We will protect those precious to us. Yet we would rather be gentle to those we love. We have interests that drive us to learn and we get excited sharing our knowledge with those in our band of brothers.
What makes a dad great? His drive to be the best of himself. His love and protection. A man’s strength of body and his character. The all-around average man is great because he is trying to make the world better.
The Need for Masculine fathers
One of the big reasons dads are so great is because they are masculine fathers. Now, this isn’t anything to do with the alpha males or beta males. Masculine dads are those who are men and know that they are men. They embrace the idea of masculinity. They are rough and tumble; they wrestle with the kids. They are the monkey bars for young kids. They are the means of flying through the air. They perform scary aerial feats with the little ones.
The need for masculinity in a kid’s life is critical. They learn the power of delayed satisfaction and relish in the sensations of a hard job well done. Masculinity is the hard side for moms to softness and empathy.
Masculine men even make better dads. That isn’t even a statement from me that is from Ohio State University. Now they stated that men who are able to hold on to the masculine traits are better parents.
Why Dads are important
Dads are important to the raising of kids. Same as it takes two to create a child it actually takes two to raise a child. Sadly many think men are nothing more than a means of getting money. The unscrupulous people often hold kids’ ransom to the detriment of the kids. This harm that they do? They are shortening the lives of their kids, more specifically the boys.
It is shown that boys who do not have a father in their life have shorter telomeres in their cells. What’s a telomere? Telomeres are parts of our cells that get shorter the more that we age. The longer the telomere the longer you live. So if you are shortening your son’s life by several years when the father is kept out of their kids life.
They know how to have fun
Now sadly the media has turned dads into buffoons more than anything. The last great TV dad was Dan Connor off of Roseanne. He liked to have fun. He had friends he would see each week in a card game. He was fiercely protective of his kids, and he loved his wife.
One of the key points to Dan was he loved being silly, snarky, and his Halloween practical jokes were things of legends. In other words, he knew how to have fun. He would try to make those around him laugh and often succeeded.
Dads will often be spontaneous in both the adventures and of life lessons. This spontaneity helps kids stay curious about what that old man is up to next. Keeps them ready and willing to see what happens around the corner.
Dads Love to laugh and tell jokes. Send out humorous little quips to our work buddies. We do love to laugh though not to the point that the media likes to portray us these days.
Dads can be serious
There are times when it isn’t good to be cutting jokes and dads convey this expertly. They are able to turn off the jokester and be focused to the point of being scary. Like any boy who has had to meet the father of a girl, he is dating can attest to. Dads know how to drive a point home. We can and often do communicate the desired response to a situation.
We are pioneers
We love an adventure be it a blanket fort in the living room or a sudden WWE wrestling match on the couch. Dad’s are always up for an adventure. Our motto is, “Let’s find out.” We help our kids understand the world around them. We allow them to be a little dangerous because that is where the excitement comes from. That unknown of who’s gonna get the broken leg, gives the boys an even larger sense of accomplishment when they come out unscathed.
Many “professionals,” think this dangerous behavior is toxic. When in all reality the boys aren’t toxic they aren’t defective girls. These people didn’t have a good role model to show them how a man is supposed to act.
Without the masculinity of dads, there wouldn’t be a frontier to tackle. There wouldn’t be stories of heroes. There wouldn’t be men who took on the evil of the world. Us toxic masculine fathers are the ones who are standing between the evils of the world and those too scared to act. All because we are adventurous. WIthout men in the world, there would be a lot less greatness about it.
Dads teach boundaries
Now moms do a good job of boundaries but often kids know how to push moms’ buttons so they can stay up later. They get one more story, one more round of a game. While men are able to get kids to settle for that one story because of the interactions they have with their kids. That wrestling session on the floor is critical for kids to bond with their dads. Roughhousing is great for kids because these kids are learning boundaries and that there are consequences when they are too rough. They may have to sit on the couch and watch for a short time or they simply get told to quit it. They don’t get that interaction with dad.
SO when dad says it’s bedtime you get fewer gripes and bargaining sessions because dad said no, and if you want to play with dad tomorrow you do what he says
Dads are great.
Now I have been talking this whole time about dads being great and giving just a few examples. Are dads perfect? No, we are just as susceptible to our own faults like any other human. It is maddening that our kids put us on a pillar only for us to fall off at the time kids really need us in those difficult teenage years. Yet we manage to get through it.
Many people seem to hate dads. I wonder if they just had a father figure in their life that meant anything good. Most likely not, that man fell from their pedestal and the anti-man decided that all men are bad. Well, I assure you, they aren’t real men who are dads. They work hard, play hard, and have their own struggles that they are going through. So thank a dad for his efforts and have a wonderful day
