Posted on 08/28/2011 7:14:44 PM PDT by lowbridge
Things change when you have a child.
You begin to feel differently about a multitude of life’s experiences.
The entire world takes on new meaning and nuance.
Take Dirty Dancing.
Pre-fatherhood, I watched Patrick Swayze tell Jerry Orbach that “Nobody puts baby in the corner” and thought, “Hell yeah, Johnny Castle! You let that patronizing old fool have a piece of your mind! He doesn’t deserve Baby for a daughter! Damn straight nobody puts Baby in a corner!”
Now that I’m a father, things have changed slightly.
Now I watch Patrick Swayze tell Jerry Orbach that “Nobody puts baby in the corner” and think, “If I were Jerry Orbach’s character, I would jam my steak knife into that greaser’s gut and twist it until he was dead at my feet. No one, and I mean no one, is going to tell me how to raise my daughter, let alone take her out from under my wing with a stupid line like that. Especially not some summer camp male slut dance instructor. Over my dead body, Johnny Castle. Over my dead body, you pathetic piece of dancehall trash.”
See the difference?
Fatherhood changes everything.
You are the Man, Matt ...
Agreed. I would kneecap a guy who tried something if I had a teenage daughter! Here’s a clip from the show Family Guy that expresses the same idea......LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJaaNkOMuT4
I laughed.
It could also be defined as previously you want to get some of what Baby represents, but now you have some. It’s a good struggle. It’s not the winning, but the struggle that sustains us.
Fatherhood does change every man, some for the better, some for the worse.
Can just speak for myself, was 21 years old when our first daughter was born. It then hit me like a ton of bricks, I was now responsible for this child.
Wife and I both came from hellish broken homes. When that birth took place, I swore that no matter what came, I would never abandon or mistreat our children.
I was going to make a comment about killing Patrick Swayze ... until it hit me that Jerry Orbach is dead too. Damn shame, both of those.
I suppose he’s going to have to be protective of a daughter with the last name Dicks.
LOL... you know, I never did get through this movie. But I remember watching Footloose a few years ago and thinking, “You know, the parents have a point about the dancing...”
Several years ago, I was called for jury duty. The attorneys were interviewing us prospective jurors. This was a date rape case involving two students at the local college.
The defense attorney was asking each of us about our background. When I said that I was a Vietnam veteran, former Marine and father of four children, three of them girls, he simply said,
“You are dismissed.”
Apparently he understood a father’s perspective.
With a teenaged son you have only one **** to worry about. With a teenaged daughter you have all the ***** in the world to worry about
As father of four girls, I know exactly where you’re coming from, and I’ve never liked Dirty Dancing, especially in the epilog she talks about her life after the events in the film, just another dimwit Berkley slut.
Why would a straight man watch that movie twice?
“When that birth took place, I swore that no matter what came, I would never abandon or mistreat our children.”
Once in a great while my wife and I will disagree more than we should in front of the kids. Lots of their friends have divorced parents. One daughter asked a year or more ago “Are you guys getting a divorce?”
“No honey, and we’re sorry we argued in front of you. it’s okay for us to disagree, but we shouldn’t have done it in fornt of you. And no, when we got married it is ‘until death do us part’- divorce is not an option with us.”
After thinking about that for a bit, she asked “So did you sign that when you got married, or is that an option that you added on later?”
I came from a Leave to Beaver upbringing...mom was not terribly maternal...dad made up for it as inspiring and always there
sometimes when folks marry young they sorta keep dating as they raise kids
i recall my mom telling me her relationship with dad was the paramount one in the family..which I found offputting till I finally got a kid brother when I was 12
I never thought like that and made sure I got a wife who didn't either...and 5 kids later..we sure don't even though we make a lot of “time” for ourselves even as old geezers
we all learn from mistakes our folks made no matter how small ...
my only complaint about today is too many younger parents I see don't discipline and the women have too much influence on boy raising and in the family in general...the men being rather meek
and here in Dixie the young parents do not raise with the old manners like we do...I'm 53 and wifey is 45 and our youngest is 4 so many of our parenting peers are Genx or even Gen Y in some cases. I'm mid boomer and she's on the Boomer/X line
I am a born dad...no question about it at all...I love women and the lure of their physicality and hence one can expect spawn and must be prepared to deal with that consequence...but if someone had told me in 1972 listening to Stairway to Heaven drinking bongwater I'd have 5 kids and be with one woman ..a long time...I woulda laffed my ass off.
But like you said...once a woman's jeans get tight and her boobs swell and her hair thickens and shines with the ripeness of carrying life...it all just jelled for me
shame so many segments of our culture have no clue what I speak of
“And as we wind on down the road...”
You pervert. Oh wait, I’m 52 soon and my wife is 46.
Boy, I ran out of pot before but never resorted to drinking the bong water. Scraping the crap out if, drying and smoking sure! But drinking? LOL
I once watched a guy...long haired leaping gnome sort..now a trial attorney in Mississippi...figures
1973...dancing around..listening to “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road”...drink bong water from a bamboo bong...now that is rank...I only drank from pexiglass
shows my inherent class and station...lol..
you should see freak dancing hon...
damn girls are nuts to dance like that in public with a man
Your post is now my all time favorite of on freerepublic. (non political)
Thats saying a lot. I have been on much longer than my record shows. The first wife kept the computer...along with everything else I ever owned.
Glad to report, got a good woman now. I am 42, with 20 month old twin baby boys. If somebody would have told me, back in 1985, while listening to Journey, and smoking a jar of roaches, that I would have twins at 40,I woulda laffed my ass off.
I have a son over fifty years younger than me. I hear ya!
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