The stereotypical father...

I am not. I'm sitting here on Father's day, wondering what kind of father I am to my son. I'm certainly not the incompetent father character in the "The Nanny" or whatever that movie was with Emma Thompson. But I wonder about being 'hard' and 'soft', masculine and feminine. I'm the disciplinarian (something my mother complained about when I was with my ex, because my ex never did any disciplining), and I'm the comfort, soft and cuddly with my boy. We play rough because I throw him on my bed (pretty hard sometimes), and we play soft because I have to tell him not to chase the cat, or not to be too rough...I cry in front of him (once in a while, over things worth crying about...on the other hand, I get misty over things like this morning on TV they were talking about the American Flag...I wear my heart on my sleeve), and I let him cry when he's upset about something...

My career is not first. As I sit here and write this, I'm wondering what a stereotypical father is...I read an article the other day about Father's day cards, and how the men depicted are fat, sloppy, full of gas, and play golf. I've hit golf balls once or twice in my whole life, I'm reasonably thin, not especially gassy (LOL!), and I keep my appearance reasonably neat. I'm not a metrosexual, either -- no makeup or hairstylist for me, just a haircut every so often. I shower every day, do the dishes, take out the trash, mow the lawn, pull weeds (which my son has learned to hate because I have so many to pull!), and at some point soon I'll be fixing and taking care of the pool.

Not sure where this puts me in the spectrum of manliness, but I recognize that a lot of this is just parenting, no matter your sex...which leaves me wondering...

Rusty