I recently decided that I wanted to be a better father than I am at this moment. This is a decision I probably should have come to much much earlier than now as opposed to 12 years in. I picked up a book that has stood on my shelf since, well since somebody else decided many years ago that I needed to be a better father, called "Better Dads, Stronger Sons."
Hey! I want to be a better dad. This book says 'Better Dad' right in the title!
I picked up the book and skimmed/skipped entirely the first two chapters about reconciling and forgiving my parents. That sounds rediculous! I am now just a few pages into the second chapter called Bonding with Your Boy. A side bar on page 58 reveals ( invents?) some interesting information (facts?) about absent fathers. it looks kind of like this:
Absent or Disconnented Father Can Create in Boys:
- Anger and pain (surppressed rage)
- Extreme Behaviours, addictions, or obsessions
- Sense of lostness (indecisiveness, lack of direction)
- Homosexuality
Woah, wait a minute. That's a pretty powerful and subversive message to plant inside a side-bar as if it's a simple known fact that Absent or Disconnected fathers MAKES BOYS GAY. It was at that moment that I closed the book and set it down on the bathroom floor. I realized, the simple fact that I am not teaching my children that homosexuality can be conjured up in kids by an absent or disconnected father already makes me a better dad than anyone mentioned in that book.
So can better dads keep kids from turning gay? No, but "Better Dads, Stronger Sons" can be easily turned into emergency toilet paper.
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