I joined Gay Dads NSW a week or so ago and have found another land of similarity to feel like home in.
What piqued my interest from their website was a survey asking 421 men their background interest in joining the group. The top three responses were: 31 percent have children from a previous relationship (that’s me), 35 percent were interested in exploring their options in being parents and 11 percent were surrogates.
So I sent the group an email introducing myself and received a few responses from men in the same boat. Just to see the words in front of me to made me feel included and part of a group. I even found a response from another dad in the same company I work in.
There are social nights to attend, afternoons in children’s parks, zoo trips and I’m sure the odd bbq. Meeting people with young children like my two mini men will be a long sought-after dream.
Sometimes you forget how tough it is without comparing notes with someone — someone in the same size shoe.
My Troppo playmate has children, three of them, all grown up. Comparing notes sometimes is difficult because of the age gap. Fact is, I’m nearly closer to his daughter’s age than to his.
Last weekend, we took his youngest son and his girlfriend out for dinner in Newtown. We clasped fingers as we strolled down King St and noticed some shiny rings in a shop window. We skipped in and minced around for nearly half an hour trying on the most ridiculous rings.
I don’t know how the kids felt watching dad and his mate trying gawdy rings on, but it was so funny and in the end, they joined in too.
I looked up ‘dad’ in the little Oxford Dictionary I have on my desk and it led me to ‘father’ and then to ‘parent’. In the circle of words it allows for born offspring and otherwise, adopted, surrogates et al.
In my book, a dad is a man who is blessed and tasked with a precious person to raise, love, guide and every now and then embarrass by trying on costume jewellery after dinner.
[Link: Original Article]
No comments:
Post a Comment