Some things just have to be done by dads
Mind you the wider family can really help out in this area, I recently had a teenager who asked if he could call me "dad" I thanked him for the compliment and said I really liked being called by my first name. But it just shows you, you can't under estimate how much "Dad stuff" is picked up by other kids.
Be a dad to all kids!!!!
I like the concept -but what if you don't have a wider family? I have enough trouble being dad to my own kids without taking on the rest of the neighbourhood
i'm 39 and am an adopted (in the non legal sense) dad to two guys both in their 20's who grow up on the streets, one calls me dad and hugs me every time i see him, the other one drops in everynow and again just to check i'm still there and happy to be "dad". I'm comfortable with being a dad to whoever needs me. Its the 1 thing i'm enjoying about getting older!
My sons mate (who is always around ours) called me dad the other day.... Strange moment....
I think these postings show exactly what being a Dad is - to these kids, you have automaticaly filled in the position of Dad in thier mind. Someone they trust, who probably knows useful stuff (which is nothing whatsoever to do with your IQ level). To me it also demonstrates (what everyone except the PC brigade has always known) that kids need a Dad in thier lives every bit as much as they need a Mum - and that there is a "place" in thier mind that is meant to be occupied by a Dad. Of course, Social Workers and so on would see this as a very dated idea. But then, I work in the criminal justice system and actualy see the real sad results of their PC thinking day in and day out rather than the wishful thinking results.
As for Cars, boats and planes, I found recently that my own daughter thinks that any man who can't mend stuff is of little interest to her! (cars and boats anyway, I don't have an aeroplane!) - Which kind of showed me that we as Dads, if we're doing our job right, are setting thier expectations and values often without even knowing it. I think this applies to boys or girls equaly.
I wish I had the time to learn how to fix cars and boats - although by anyone's defintion the cost of owning a plane would almost certainly mean the person doing the owning was not the one doing the fixing...
Memories of my dad include him Driving the Car to sea-side holidays, showing me how to make Paper Boats and Planes - and also building/flying model planes from plastic to balsa wood kits!
Apart from helping my son drive and showing him how to make paper boats and planes, though, (not in that order of course!) I've never got into the other stuff, so neither has he.
A lad at the school I work at called me 'the dad I never had' a while ago. All I did was show him how to make paper airoplanes - and play football with him - but he had never done things like this with his (single) foster mum.....
Hmmm, I work in the Tech / project management sector - I don't think I'll getting are respone like that at work... π
As long as it works at home, Batman....!