Parenting For Fathers

Today I attended the first in five Parenting Techniques For Fathers classes. Mrs Levee attended one of these earlier in the year and said I might find it useful. So off I went. . .

There was a fairly small group of guys in the room when I arrived (late!). The leader, a lady called Jackie, asked us to break into groups of two and to talk about our family situations: how many children we had, married, unmarried, separated. The object of this was that, rather than introduce ourselves, we would introduce the other person we spoke to.

Anyway, I got talking to a guy called John who was slightly younger than me. John had two young twins with his girlfriend, but the couple have since separated. “She was mentally abusing me.” he said, with a perfectly straight face. Uh-oh.

After a little while, it became apparent that John was an extremely negative person. Problems abounded everywhere. With his kids, his ex-girlfriend, his mother and even himself. He mentioned that he had been seeing a psychiatrist recently.

My turn was pretty straightforward, touched on little details about myself, Mrs Levee and the kids. I mentioned that Ray was lovely and that she was very self-assured, Jay was at an age where he was climbing and getting into scrapes. I also mentioned a long-standing parental gripe of mine - that Mrs Levee and I didn’t get to spend enought time together on our relationship.

Imagine my surprise when John introduced me! Firstly, Ray was a bossly little terror who ruled the house. Jay was a ‘bit of a wild wee man - he might have ADHD‘ and to top things off, Mrs Levee and I were on the verge of divorce. Please!

I was momentarily stunned. I assumed I had used pretty clear language and that my affection for my wife and children had been perfectly clear. I can only guess that his own negative outlook had completely clouded his interpretation of what he was being told. Needless to say, I set the record straight, but I did sort of feel sorry for the guy.