Sorry, this article is mostly a load of crap. What father does not talk in an excited tone to his children such as "Would you like a cookie?" or "Do you see that bunny?". Yes, there has been a lot of feminization of men, but just because I stoop down and raise the pitch of my voice a little to get their attention does not mean I'm a second mom.
Too bad the author was apparently raised by East German police.
Why should you talk to them like that, they aren’t idiots?
I think the point is that today’s father NEVER stands up.
If you can’t admit that we have a father problem in our culture . . .
I agree the article is a little over the top in reading into the vocal tones and body language but there is a valid, broader point about adults putting kids on pedestals. Even in my own family, my step-mother cooks special food for the grandkids if she knows they don’t like what she is cooking for the adults. I know a number of families where the kids don’t have regular chores, or where the kids get to pick the place where the family goes out to eat. Christmas gift giving to kids has gone out of control in a number of houses — I see sob stories in the paper where parents are crying that they can’t get their kids what the kids want, as if you are a bad parent because you can’t get the kid everything on his or her Christmas list.
And part of the reason for this is that a number of parents never really grew up. They are immature themselves. I don’t think, as the author does, that it results so much from Feminism as it does from the destruction of personal responsibility in our culture. No one is required to be self-sufficient or required to account for their actions.
I agree with you 100%. My father was truly old school. WWII vet who pulled himself up by his boot straps and made something of himself. The displays of so-called manliness that would impress this author, my father would have dismissed as being simply being low class. There was even a phrase for it amongst his peers. Sergeants disease: Men who tried to discipline their families and run their homes as they would have their troops and barracks.
Thanks. The article seems to be written by somebody who thinks being emotionally distant is the way to raise sons. One interacts with small children differently from how one interacts with teenagers.