Patience and Time are the Key Ingredients to Fatherhood
Posted: Wednesday, June 15, 2011
by Patricia Johnson
Articles and Answers.com
My brothers will ask me a question about a childhood event then sit and shake their heads in wonder when I can't remember the particular incident they're referencing, but the fact is my memory bank was pretty much wiped out several years ago in an accident.It's almost as if I didn't have a childhood because I remember so little about it, but the one thing I can never forget is the love. I was the very first female grandchild in a huge Italian family and was nothing less than spoiled. I could do no wrong. I remember hearing stories about how I would do this or that, things that would send most children to their rooms, or behind the shed for a paddling, and my family would grin and call me ‘cute'.
I think my one brother described it best when he said he couldn't imagine how I ever learned to walk because I was constantly being carried around by someone or another.
Since I have so few childhood memories, I have to skip to adulthood to remember my father and what I remember is a man who loved me unequivocally, had an easy smile, a great sense of humor, and an incredible amount of patience, not so much with life, but with me for no other reason other than I was his daughter and you don't get a better role model than that.
When I'm out and about at the grocery store, the movies, the airport, at a restaurant, or even a fast food place, I'll watch people and what I've noticed in past years is the majority of men seem to have far more patience with children than women. So often I'll see women yelling at their children, who are dragging behind them with tears in their eyes, while children with men are happy and bouncing around with smiles on their faces.
The little things children do to annoy their female caretakers don't seem to have the same effect on men which is super. I'd much rather be around happy children than little ones with tears in their eyes screaming at the top of their lungs.
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy wrote "The strongest of all warriors are these two – Time and Patience." The words were written about the Turkish war, but certainly applicable when trying to instill in children a sense of what is most important in life.
© 2011 Patricia L Johnson
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