Out today, in time for Father’s Day, here’s my piece in The Scotsman discussing the changing role of fathers in family life and how our society needs to catch up…
For the full piece, click here.
“Wait until your father gets home!”
That’s what they used to say, wasn’t it? Except in my house it was always wait until ‘your dad’ gets home – ‘father’ was a word more associated, to my young mind, with priests and Star Wars baddies.
Let’s unpack all this for a moment.
When I was growing up, ‘Dad’ was a distant figure (both emotionally and geographically) who would return from a nebulous world called ‘work’ and distribute punishment (usually of the smacked-legs variety) when ‘Mum’ had reached the end of her tether with our shenanigans.
These days, life is considerably different for many children (and their parents). I’m a stay at home dad: a phrase that often conjures images of softly spoken, hummus-addicted, Beta males who wouldn’t be considered threatening to a wet paper bag – and our bags are ALL paper, we’re far too right-on to touch anything non-biodegradable. As such, our kids don’t see dad as a distant threat, rather we are treated with the same level of familiarity (and contempt) with which kids have always regarded their mothers…
Chris McGuire, The Scotsman
For more of my writing check out chrismcguirewriter.wordpress.com, and for more thoughts on fatherhood see Outofdepthdad.com.
Chris McGuire: Writer 