...someone man enough to attend his little girl's tea
party, complete with overmixed iced tea, burned microwave popcorn and
gummy worms stuck to salty peanuts... and still complement her on being
a wonderful hostess.
...someone who is proud of his little boy's carpentry
project, an uneven wooden thingie that is really supposed to be a
chair, complete with bent nails, still wet glue and duct tape... and
thus commends him on learning to build things just like a man.
...a stepdad who loves his stepchildren like they're
his own... because they are.
...a man who does not make you go into the same
profession as his if you don't want to, allowig you to follow your own
dreams.
...running alongside you when you're learning to ride
a bike without training wheels to cheer you on and to catch you if you
fall.
...one who smiles and tells his young son "Someday,
son, someday..." when said son declares that all girls have cooties and
that he will become a life member of the He-Man Woman Haters Club
International.
...one who smiles and tells his young daughter
"Someday, sweetheart, someday..." when said sweetheart declares that
all boys have cooties and that she will become a life member of the
Pretty Princess Coalition of Stupid Boy Jerk Haters, United.
...called corny and not current when he warns his
teenager that another MP3 player is just as good as the iPod that costs
three times as much and has half as much disk space, and then grins
like a Cheshire cat when the kid realizes he or she plunked down $300
for a good-looking piece of hyped-up junk.
...someone who disciplines you when you do something
really bad, tells you why it's bad, then gives you a hug after you've
learned your lesson.
...really smart when he decides not to bail out his
kid so that he or she learns to be responsible for his or her actions.
...the type of man his son should aspire to be, and
his daughter should seek to marry.
...not afraid to cry.
..a man's man, a family man, his wife's man, a
disciplined man, a loving man, a man of courage, a man of respect... a
man of God.
