16/06/2024
MASCULINITY is a fragile concept and fatherhood is a confusing construct...... because we are in the age of p.heminism where everything is emotionalised... especially by those who benefit from masculinity and fatherhood.
Not that emotions are necessarily bad but they are always fleeting..and changing...and thus mostly unreliable to make concrete decisions such as defining manhood and fatherhood.
For the fathers here, a father presence is 80% relationship building 10 % provisioning and 10% other factors.
There is a catch though; it takes two to tango and thus relationship building isn't entirely dependent on you. The people you are expected to build relationships with will bring with them their own biases, insecurities, anxieties, selfishness, bad beliefs, negative values and a cacophony of other sabotaging traits. And when relationship building fails, you take the blame.
Anyway, do what you must. And do it well. Prioritize relationship building and don't think that material provisioning will buy you respect. A lot of fathers have been burried broken hearted because of it. Happy Fathers Day
