Fathers who compete hard with their kids are monstrous. The father, for a throw-away victory, is sacrificing the very heart of hischild's sense of being good enough. He may believe he is making his son tough, as he was made tough by a similarly contending father, but he is only making his child desperate and mean like himself. Fathers must let their sons (and daughters) have their victories.

If fathers who fear fathering and run away from it could only see how little fathering is enough. Mostly, the father just needs to be there.

When it comes to little girls, God the father has nothing on father, the god. It's an awesome responsibility.

Parents can make us distrust ourselves. To them, we seem always to be works-in-progress.

The more things we can laugh about, the more alive we become: The more things we can laugh about together, the more connected we become.

Fathering is the most masculine thing a man can do.

We know how powerful our mother was when we were little, but is our wife that powerful to us now? Must we relive our great deed of escape from Mama with every other woman in our life?