Fatherhood is a complicated job, and one that has an ever changing job description as the offspring age. As a prime example example, here my spouse is pictured obtaining enough of a highly valued beer, Alchemist's Heady Topper, to share with all of his children. That is certainly not something he needed to think about when they were toddlers. None of the challenges of parenting children into adulthood make fatherhood all that different from motherhood, I know, but somehow fathers seem to get less credit. After all, once the child is born, parenting is a two person job, and over time, the nine months of incubation becomes a vanishingly small percentage of the overall effort. So give the quality dads in your life a big round of applause.
My spouse has had quite a year this past year. I was diagnosed with a cancer that was most certainly not good news. So not only did he have to deal with his own personal feelings about that, he also had to deal with the children. The problem is that when something frightening happens to a parent the kids tend to talk about it with the other parent. Not surprisingly a number of very difficult conversations ensued, more than I am aware of, I am sure. It is just a tremendously difficult task to prop up others when you yourself could do with a little propping up, and so this year in particular I am very thankful for who my children have as their father.
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