"It used to irk Melissa Calapini when her 3-year-old daughter, Haley, hung around her father while he fixed his cars. Ms. Calapini thought there were more enriching things the little girl could be doing with her time. But since the couple attended a parenting course Ms. Calapini has had a change of heart. Now she encourages the father-daughter car talk. “Daddy’s bonding time with his girls is working on cars,” said Ms. Calapini, of Olivehurst, Calif. “He has his own way of communicating with them, and that’s O.K.” As much as mothers want their partners to be involved with their children, experts say they often unintentionally discourage men from doing so."
- Bertrand Doux
from Bookmarklet
"Fathers tend to do things differently, Dr. Kyle Pruett said, but not in ways that are worse for the children. Fathers do not mother, they father. Dads tend to discipline differently, use humor more and use play differently. Fathers want to show kids what’s going on outside their mother’s arms, to get their kids ready for the outside world.” To that end, he said, they tend to encourage risk-taking and problem-solving.
- Bertrand Doux