Description:
"The birth of a child opens the doorway to discovering the nurturing qualities within us as men. These discoveries not only benefit our children, our partners, and ourselves, but create a new potential for the society we live in." So says Bruce Linton, Ph.D., author of Finding Time for Fatherhood: The Important Considerations Men Face When They Become Parents. Linton, a counselor and psychotherapist who specializes in fathering issues, runs fathering classes, counsels fathers, and writes about his own experiences as a father. While Linton's essays are thoughtful and fascinating in their variety (they range from revisiting the Oedipus myth, to looking at the men's movement, to examining the role food and meals play in the family, to discussing sex and fatherhood), it is his final essay, "What My Son Taught Me About Being a Man," that most effectively captures his vision of what it means to grow up male, and to be a father. This moving account traces his life as an equal partner in his son Morgan's upbringing. He also details his experience teaching a group of his 9-year-old son's peers that "real men" care for their friends' feelings. Such touching anecdotes convince readers that, at least where fathering is concerned, change is in the air--the old-fashioned, hands-off father is on the way out. This small, vital collection of essays is a welcome addition to the growing body of fathering literature, and will be valuable to men at all stages of fatherhood. --Ericka Lutz
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