Posted on 06/17/2009 8:02:21 PM PDT by John W
Father’s Day 2009: “An End to Buffoonish Fathers”
Ah, Father’s Day is upon us. I can’t think of a better time for dads and men to remember how to be dads and men.
Flip on the tube any time during the day and you’ll see fathers portrayed as hapless buffoons – saved from themselves by their wives and all-knowing children. The real life of the modern dad isn’t much prettier.
To be sure, the state of the American male is in a shambles – though I’m not fully sure how we got here.
I remember the ‘60s. The women’s movement was beginning to gain traction, but in our neighborhood the moms tended to cook and watch the children, whereas the men earned the money and tended to the yard, then shot the bull over a few Pabst Blue Ribbons.
I remember the ‘70s. The evening news featured equal-rights protests at which women burned their bras. Still, in our neighborhood, most of the moms stayed home and the dads worked and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon.
During the ‘80s, the economy exploded. Everyone was so busy working and getting ahead that few noticed – or took the time to celebrate – the tremendous strides women were making.
I got my first job out of college in 1984 and began working with many female professionals – they excelled in a range of jobs they wouldn’t have been offered 20 years prior.
The ‘90s came and went quickly. Women kept blossoming and growing and doing well.
And in 2009, women are doing very well. They’re doing better than men at all levels of education. They’re gaining rapidly on men as small-business entrepreneurs. In the large metros, they’re out-earning us by thousands of dollars.
As females excel, males are faltering. We’re dropping out of school at a far greater rate than women. We’re seeing our income stall or decline – even men with college degrees are falling behind.
Somewhere along the way, women weren’t content with mere equality. They decided they wanted to remake us in their own image.
Boy, have we responded.
Sensitive new-age men now spend hours fretting over their looks and style – we spend thousands getting our hair primped, our skin moisturized, our eyebrows waxed.
Modern dads are unsure of themselves, too. Fathers can be found misting up at baby showers and clapping enthusiastically the first time junior uses the commode.
And with every concession men have made we have lost status – we have lost respect. Well, nuts to that.
Look, men, we need to whip ourselves back into shape – we need to remember how men and fathers should be.
When our wives dress our sons up in knickers and saddle shoes, we must respond the way older fathers would have responded: “No son of mine is going to wear any damn knickers!”
We must retake control over the naming process of our children. We must give our boys names such as Tom, Mike, Jim and Joe – not let our wives name them Gilad, Jeremy and Michelle.
We need to stop seeking the approval of our sons and daughters. We are the adults and they are the children. Our role is to focus on the unpleasant job of fathering – to do the often unpopular work that will prepare them for a competitive world.
We must regain our backbone. We must earn respect by being good husbands and fathers – and we must demand that we be respected.
There’s nothing wrong with being more attentive to our children than the father’s of old were. There’s nothing wrong with changing the diapers and having long conversations and showing emotion.
But somewhere along the way we’ve tossed the baby out with the bathwater – we’ve let ourselves become wimps and buffoons – and that isn’t good for our wives, our kids or ourselves.
It’s up to us now. We must restore some needed balance and equilibrium to the American family.
If we do, fathers, after a long productive day of fathering, will be able to enjoy an occasional Pabst Blue Ribbon on the back porch.
If we don’t, it is just a matter of time before modern dads are forced to wear knickers and saddle shoes, too.
They still make guys piss sitting down in Scandanavia?
Frank Booth: What kind of beer do you like to drink, neighbor?
Jeffrey Beaumont: Heineken.
Frank Booth: Heineken? F___ that s___! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
When I was growing up, my father was my biggest role model. I suppose that’s uncommon for girls, but I think it was a big part of why I ended up a conservative.
Regarding the names, what’s wrong with Jeremy for a boy? And I don’t know any boys named Michelle. Unless you count Michelle Obama.
Study Shows Christianity Makes Men Better Husbands and Fathers (Open)
Honoring Thy Fathers
Priests of the Domestic Church: A Father's Day Homily
The Blueprint for Heroic Family Life [Fathers' Day] [Ecumenical]
Honoring Thy Fathers
A Father's Tough Love
Children Who Have An Active Father Figure Have Fewer Psychological And Behavioral Problems
Where Have All the Christian Men Gone? My Conversation with John Eldredge
The Transforming Power of Prayer [Part 1] (Catholic Man)
The Transforming Power of Prayer, Part 2 (Catholic Man)
The 10 Paradoxes of Fatherhood, There is a certain immediacy about motherhood that cannot
The Story of Champions [Father's Day]
What Makes a Man a Hero? [Father's Day]
The New Catholic Manliness
Applying St. Benedict's Rule to Fatherhood and Family Life - Using 6th-Century Wisdom Today
Jeremy???? I never considered that a girl’s name or anything feminine. That is the only thing I disagree with. Everything else is pretty spot on.
I don’t know about the author but my 41 year old husband has never been the kind of man,father,husband that he has described.
My husband works hard at physical labor 7 days a week, usually 10 hours a day. he comes home dirty and sweaty. He drinks beer, chews tobacco and his hair is always cut, high on the sides...if it touches his ears its too damned long!Longer than that and he’d call you a “damned hippy”
He’s conservative and votes. He grew up on a farm. knows how to drive anything but especially likes to drive his tractor.
He changed our babies diapers too. did a bad job but tried.
He ENJOYS having me stay at home to raise our kids, even if it means he has to work more and harder than his friends.
He likes his laundry done and put away, his food homecooked and the house clean. He likes knowing that his children are being raised by their mother.
If anyone comes up and tries to tell us that same old tired sh*t about how “no one can afford to stay at home anymore” i think i’ll scream!
there are definitly still real men out there. But you’ll most likely find them in the rural areas!
Hear,hear!
Fatherhood is outlawed. Only rich men and men with very good, old fashioned wives (who won’t chase other men and falsely accuse their husbands) will be fathers long enough to help raise kids.
I recently dated, for about a year, a genuine Asian (Korean) fox. Incredibly good looking.
Tall with well above average curves for an Asian woman.
Took my breathe away.
But, she tried, slowly at first, to make me urinate sitting down. She was patient with the idea, but would not give it up.
Now she had fine qualities in addition to looks but...
I already took my shoes off when I entered her house.
Enough.
And that nasty Korean food (besides the bbq).
Bye Bye.
But she was really sexy. Really.
Now, some American dude is squatting to piss.
Pathetic. But he’s with a fox.
(no offense to you lady freepers. I havent met any of you yet)
Actually John, men are just following the directives of people they run into from the age of five through early adulthood. The bias couldn’t be clearer. Men have been relegated to second class status. Remember, those white beasts who founded our nation had slaves. That’s where you start these days, and it goes downhill from there.
Education materials were changed to make girls more interested. Guy topics that used to be used in teaching, now take second place to female oriented topics.
You’re told to be more like the girls at every step of the way. Little boys who are physically designed to run, jump, play, and make noise, are forced to sit, be quiet, work or be drugged.
It’s amazing to me that we have any bright young men graduating from high school at all. As many of their mothers as possible have turned them into simpering idiots, with societies enthusiastic approval.
Dad’s can’t step in. They are prevented from turning their boys out to be masculine achievers. You can’t discipline. You can’t say no. You can’t raise your voice.
In about a generation or so we’ll have only women on the football team, and only men in the glee club.
Say, isn’t that marrrrrrvelous.
Sign them up for dodgeball.
Oh we can’t have that. We need our children to respect each other. And this places them in a hurtful situation. /s
Honestly, this is probably the mindset these days.
http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeAdams/2009/06/08/my_1970_gto
“My 1970 GTO”
by Mike Adams
SNIPPET: “In the summer of 1980, I was looking forward to turning 16 and getting a driver’s license. All of my friends were looking forward to driving but none as much as me. My friends would be driving used Mazdas and Toyotas that got good gas mileage. But my dad bought me a 1970 GTO. He didn’t care that it got nine miles to the gallon. It looked like it was going thirty miles an hour when it was just sitting in the driveway.”
SNIPPET: “So dad and I went into the garage and pulled out the motor. After it was secure on the engine lift we could see the source of the noise. And we knew we could just pull off the flywheel cover and hammer out the dent to fix the problem. But we also knew it would be so much more fun to rebuild the old motor. My dad must have figured that if I was going to finish at the bottom of my class academically I might as well have the fastest car among the 3300 students at Clear Lake High School.
For weeks, after I got home from school – and my dad got home from work – we toiled away on that engine.”
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