Make no mistake fellas it does not matter where you are from, what your background is, what your age is, what race you are, or how you identify, or what your political beliefs may be once that first baby is born or adopted or however they come into your life you have entered into this “brotherhood of fatherhood”!
That child does not know or understand whether you are well off financially or if you ever committed a crime. They do not care about those things that seem to divide us as people. Well guess what we as dads should not care either!! If there was ever a time for us to come together and be there for each other it is now. I am not going to say all of us have the same experiences and can relate to all the issues we each face in life, but we all have that bond as fathers and it is that bond we should all rely on to help each other!
The perception of the “father figure” is something that I believe has become more toxic to us then ever before. That perception is one of not allowing anything to bother you or you need to be strong never cry never allow your emotions or stress to show. These ideas have been engrained into us over years and years to the point it is how people want to define what it is to be a dad. When it is actually our faults that make us unique and define who are as individual fathers.
We can all relate to the same shared experiences as dads, the first steps, the first words, the first cut or scrape, the first day of school, and so on. It is fascinating to think we all handled these situations and others in our way based on our own life experiences and things we have learned. Meanwhile despite handling it differently we each had the same intention which is to love these crazy kids as much as possible and to protect and raise them with everything we have. That feeling is something we all share and connects us as a brotherhood.
When you expand upon that further the other things in life such as sports, hobbies, entertainment, and other interests are the other joys in life many of share in common. Lets face a fact it does not take much for us dads to strike up some common ground to discuss over a beer!! These interests tend to be the ones we set aside in order to be there for our families and children and it is the balance in life we ideally want to have but rarely do. It is easy for the things we enjoy doing or the passions we have to get lost in the shuffle of life, and we can all agree at times we selfishly wish we could them more.
So to my fellow brothers in fatherhood never forget you are not alone in this journey!! Yes you have your family and your wife who love you but sometimes it takes a fellow brother or dad to truly understand what you might be experiencing or going through.