Between the lines: stories build bonds between father and child
My husband is great with children and has a good rapport with them. Nevertheless, hanging out with young ones isn't his idea of a relaxing and fun time.
Asked to pick between two weekend activities, nine times out of 10 he would choose the one that didn't involve children, neither our own nor those of our friends. He relishes weekends spent in the company of adults.
Even though my husband brought welcome balance to my weekends as I joined him in these activities, he often found himself apologising to hyper-parents for his "behaviour".
I consoled him by noting that there is no study to show that helicoptered kids, or kids with parents who are constantly present, grow up to be happier or more successful.
He found comfort in my summaries of the hundreds of parenting-related articles that I had read, many of which dissected this recent concept of parents existing for the sake of children.
While my husband's parenting views have not changed much from the time we brought home our first child, I can see that he is now enjoying spending more time around children as ours grow older. And through all this quality time spent together in harmony, each member of our family is beginning to see the developing father-child bond.
