Guest Post: Manhood vs. Childhood
For those who don’t know me, my name is Patrick and I am friend of Josh, who asked me to write a guest post.
I’ll start this post with a little story that I witnessed the other day at the kindergarten school I work at.
Little Daniel was every excited when it was time to go home. Most children are but this time it was different. Dad was at the door picking him up. It didn’t happen often and little Daniel was ecstatic. He rushed to the door, hugged his dad and started to show him the wonderfully colourful drawings he did that day.
“That’s nice.” Dad replied with his eyes glued to his BlackBerry.
“Daddy, you’re not looking!” little Daniel countered.
Dad took his eyes off his BlackBerry for a moment, glanced at one of the drawings and repeated “that’s nice.”
Now let me interject something here. As a graduate of Early Childhood Education with a college diploma and a university degree in this exact specialization, children know when adults are not being sincere. It has been proven many times.
Little Daniel picked up on this fact and started to cry. Dad looked at him and said, “don’t cry, get ready” with no inclination that he was going to help his son get ready. At that moment, in walks another dad. His little girl ran to him in his arms and hugged and kissed him and she also started to show her dad what she did in class that day. Her dad looked at the work she gave him and said, “that’s nice” with no real sense of appreciation. Suddenly her excitement vanished and she slowly and quietly got ready. When she was ready to leave her dad said to little Daniel’s dad “being a father is hard, eh?” to which he replied “tell me about it.” He then walked out, not holding the door for his daughter and left the school. Shortly after, little Daniel and his dad left too.
Now, I can think of a few things wrong with this and I am sure you can too. Since when did becoming a father mean you spent more time with your work and BlackBerry than with your own child? When did becoming a gentleman and a responsible man become hard work? I am at a loss for words…
Being a man and a father are similar tasks. They both require extreme patience, resilience and time but they also require compassion and pride. These are rare qualities nowadays. I believe that manhood is in complete opposition of childhood. Children are naturally self-centered, egotistical, utterly dependent and impatient. Men are more concerned with their core values of independence, helping others out, being compassionate yet realistic and doing what’s right. I saw none of that in the fathers that picked up their children from my kindergarten class. All I saw was four children leave at the same time. Maybe I’m being cynical but I’ll leave you with this. As James Dean once said: A man has a choice and it’s a choice that makes him a man.
Note: Patrick is a very good friend and an amazing man. You can find him on Twitter @pmc85 and beg for more posts just like I will.
creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.
so very well said Patrick!