It occurred to me the other day that fatherhood has changed me. This "revelation" came to me as the girls and I were watching Disney's "Brave". For those who have yet to see it, or won't ever see it, it is a story of an independent princess. But not a princess in the likes of the glitzy, girly, prince Charming waiting, evil step-mother having princess. This strong, independent princess will do good for girls near and far. She is very similar to my princesses. Independent, strong willed, don't tell me no, I can do it myself kind of princess. Sound familiar?
Back to the dad part. Ever since Bayly entered this world I noticed a change in myself. I am sure other father's have noticed the same change. I started to get teary-eyed at sappy movies. I started to see things differently in the way of emotional situations; mostly in movies and shows.
At the end of "Brave" there is an emotional reunion of sorts of the princess and her mother. I could feel the room get "dusty." Darn dust; always gets into my eyes and sure as the weather men are wrong my eyes start to water. I am totally confident it was the dust concentration in the air and had NOTHING to do with the movie. NOTHING.
So as I was driving my family to a business trip for my wife, and everyone in the car was either sleeping (wife), watching a movie (Bayly), or annoying her sister to no end (Cali) I had the aforementioned revelation. While I may have become an emotional movie watcher, or developed and very acute allergy to dust (more likely), I am still a man. I do man things. I mow the lawn, superbly. I fix things, sometimes just good enough, sometimes not superbly, sometimes it gets the job done. I do have two kids, ya know.
The moral of this is I can be both. I can show my princesses that a father can have that emotional side, or that its ok to be really allergic to dust and I can do masculine things. I guess that is just the juggling act of fatherhood. At least in the fatherhood of stay-at-home-dad land.
Being a good dad/father/man is tough work. All we can do is our best.
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