Psssst. Hey, guys. Mothering has an article about fatherhood…written by a father!
Parenthood: Inside vs. Outside
By Jeremy Adam Smith‘Last night my son curled up into the crook of my arm. I held him, feeling like the bed was a raft and we were just drifting along some dark river. In a flash I felt totally responsible for Liko and totally capable of caring for him, day or night, in a way that I hadn’t felt before.
That feeling of responsibility and capability gave me a concomitant feeling of confidence and power; not “power” in the sense of physical force or strength, but as in the ability to do what has to be done.
“Father” did not feel like a role that I was adopting, but like something intrinsic to my identity. It didn’t feel “like” anything, really; it was its own thing, my thing, like my arms or my legs.’
‘The ability to do what has to be done.’ That’s exactly how I felt when Ian was born.
Jeremy also writes about ‘the politics of parenting’ at Daddy Dialectic.