Do I Make A Good Father?

My cousin and her son, when he was about three to four years old, came to my office once and I played with him whilst my cousin talked with my boss, who was her boss previously. A colleague asked me whether that child was my son and when I replied, “no” he said he thought he was from the way I interacted with him. Are there specific ways how a dad interacts with his son?

Whilst walking past a kindergarten class, there was a noise. I jerked my head to the left and right to find the source of the noise and the whole class laughed. I can look at a child, make a face and the child will laugh. Maybe I got a “cartoon” face. Well not all children would laugh. Those that don’t will stare at me first and maybe wonder “what’s that freak up to?”

I seem to get along quite well with children. I seem to know what they are thinking. Does that make me childish and immature?

I think my cousins’ children like to talk and play with me. Why?

Maybe because my aim is to make them laugh. Children should be happy. I think they have been in a “serious mode” long enough when they are in school, with their teachers and parents that they need to switch off and just be silly, talking nonsense, stretching their imagination, thinking out of the box for a while. They know it is nonsense. Sometimes they say I am lying but I say I was just bluffing.

Maybe as my cousin said, I am not fierce enough. But I don’t really believe in being angry with children. Firm yes; angry no. Perhaps it is easy for me to say this as I see them at most once a week and therefore able to “tolerate” their “nonsense”.

Maybe I missed out on a lot of things when I was a child and knows what matters to a child.

Raising a child is not an easy task. Some say it is a life long process. You got to use different approaches at different stages of a child’s life. It is documented that a child will test and try to push the boundaries that his parents laid for him. It is also documented that a child will play one parent against the other to his advantage.

Does one just use the carrot or stick approach? A combination of both? How to have an effective balance?

Knowing how to make a child laugh and happy do not necessary mean I will be a good father. Will knowing and believing in some of philosophies on parenting (which I shared in my earlier posts) make me a good father? I don’t know and don’t think so. Knowing is one thing, being able to apply them effectively is another.

To those who had said that I would make a good father, I can only say, “thank you”.