Be a father to your child

A while back I posted about playing D&D with my partner and a son. A frequent commenter sent this in as a response:

In one of your posts a few months back, you mentioned that one thing 
that an absentee father misses is reliving his childhood. Ever since 
then, I've been doing just that with my five year old son. Yes, I'm 
sure I'm doing it to make up for the fact that my Dad wasn't around 
and recently died. But man, it was an absolute blast taking him to the 
comic book store for the first time today. He's in a Batman phase 
right now, which is a good place to start talking about right and 
wrong, as well as how to kick serious ass.

I will say this until I am blue in this face. One of the best things I got from my Dad as an adult was the notion that too many of us think of fatherhood as a responsibility and not an investment. It really gives so much back.

Yesterday, I had an "After School Special" moment with the boy. Football season is over and he really wants to play hockey. But his swimming instructor wants him to try out for the local swim team. Time won't allow him to do both. He also was scared of swimming competitively, I think. Hockey is just more contact--he's gotten past that. Anyway, I basically told him it wasn't up for debate. Swimming isn't just a sport, but it's a life skill. If he does it for a season and hates it he doesn't have to go back.

Anyway, he sulked for like 15 minutes than came over and gave me hug. Then he said he knew that I always did what was best for him, even when he didn't agree. I was thinking, WTF is this Family Ties? Seriously, I never had that level of self-awareness at eight. Anyway, I think I did the right thing. The kid is eight and swims better than me.

And now, the great Ed O.G.