How many of you Dad's...

[Gunner46]

..were better Mothers to your children than your wife.

My parents went through a ' Second Generation' of kids and set me with siblings at a 12/15 year gape. Guess who was the instantaneous baby sitter.

My young wife had Zero experience with babies/ toddlers having grown up in a family of three kids in three years.

Needless to say I had the experience in that department....

She was a new Mother, I was a new Dad.

She had No experience, I had several years.

Yep....We butted heads.

Who else faced this ?

 

[JEL]

My wife and I were partners in raising our 3 boys. We figured things out together as we went along.

 

[LuketheDog]

Boy, was this covered on Rand'y marriage advice podcast? Even if you thought you were a better parent than your wife, you'd be a fool of a man to admit it on a public internet forum where that admission could be uncovered someday...

 

[noharleyyet]

Everyone loves my wife...babies, other people's kids, our kids, people, and pets, but I get the priviledge of hearing how lucky I am.

 

[QuazyQuinton]

I listened to my wife when it came to taking care of babies, and she listened to me when it came to learning to shoot and hunt. The result is that we now have three kids who kill more deer and bigger bucks than I do.

QQ

 

[MarvB]

Due to “life events”, I raised, coached, and was mom/dad to my three daughters from the ages of 14,11,9. Wasn’t easy but in hindsight there isn’t a whole lot I would have done drastically different. There’s a jillion books on parenting and none of ‘em cover any of it lol....

 

[Wildabeest]

Best advice I ever heard on parenting and contributing at home was “don’t compare yourself to other dads, compare yourself to your wife.”

 

[Bob-WY]

Wife and I stumbled through it together, we remember leaving that hospital with son #1, thinking "wait, you're going to let us just leave and take him home? We don't know what we're doing"

Somehow it worked out and now we have two awesome daughters-in-law and the cutest grandson on the planet.

 

[Europe]

Everyone loves my wife...babies, other people's kids, our kids, people, and pets, but I get the priviledge of hearing how lucky I am.

Nice, very nice!

I was not going to respond Gunner46, as the thread is directed at "Dads", but noharleyyet's post prompted this post.

My husband and I came from similar backgrounds and both had excellent parenting role models, so it wasn't much of a reach for us, or at least I dont remember it being difficult.

We always made major decision together, but after the decision was made my husband was the one who carried the message to them. The only time I remember somewhat taking over was when our daughter was in high school and she was working her father. "oh daddy, pleeezzzeee " type dialog.

We also was a little tougher on her and her dates than we were on our sons. The boy leaves and we say "have a good evening but be careful and be home by ten ( school night ) or midnight ( Friday and Saturday ). But when the daughter left, we wanted to know where she was going, who with, phone numbers to those houses ( no cell phones then ), and to make sure you dont etc etc etc and be home by ten--and we were up waiting for her ---

Do daughters still attempt to by pass their mothers and try to get approval from their fathers ?

 

[noharleyyet]

@Europe Do daughters still attempt to by pass their mothers and try to get approval from their fathers ?

Back in the parenting day I was the bad cop....so not for us, they all appealed to their mom. Nowadays, since my daughter, so I hear, is just like me, she is the bad cop....and she rules with a tiny iron fist. And believe me, she detests being just like her bad cop dad.

Lots of battles, tears, tantrums, and heart breaks but it's the best job I ever had. Grandparenting is the bonus.

 

[jabber]

Due to the Big C, I was the mom & dad through those interesting high school years, and a couple of years prior as well. We both survived and Jake graduated 7th in his class of close to 200 and I didn't lose too much hair. Good times together.

 

[Irrelevant]

No matter my thoughts on the subject I'm not foolish enough to say them out loud or on Al Gore's internet...

 

[Gerald Martin]

This one isn’t even close in our family. My wife wins hands down.

 

[bobbydean]

Wife. Worked two jobs in early youth.

Those two are friends and I am a father that loves her.

 

[Clam]

I’ve always been the favorite parent, since he was an infant. I didn’t seek it, and I know his mother gets a little miffed about it sometimes.

So, to try to answer your question, yes, I am just better suited for tackling day to day challenges.

 

[Fj605]

We were fortunate enough that my wife was able to stay home with the kiddos by her own choice for three years. This Spring threw a changeup and I was sent home against our will. My wife was able to pick up extra hours at work and I stayed home. It's not close who is better at this. I'm very glad that I got the chance to do it but I know I'm not the first string team.

 

[Fullquiver]

This one isn’t even close in our family. My wife wins hands down.

Same here, heck she's even had to "mother" me a few times. I tell everyone that I had five boys to raise and my wife had six.. She's the best though..

 

[Dsnow9]

My wife raises our two girls and runs a business from home. She is a rock star! I spend every minute I can raising them as well but being at work 50-60 hrs a week makes that difficult. My girls are smart, friendly, compassionate, loving, empathetic and love the outdoors. Only one of those things I know for sure they got from me. I have often needed to be held in check though as some others have said. All that being said I think we are a great team, I have my strengths, she has hers, but there is no question in our family who is the better parent.

Also I didn’t pop them out or breastfeed them so I think that is an instant second place.

 

[mdhunter]

Ain’t no way I am going to claim to be a better dad to my children than my wife. Don’t get me wrong, I will toot my own horn and say I am a good dad. Lucky for me I just “married up”.

 

[Shangobango]

My son's mom called me when he was 9 months old and told me to come get him. She couldn't get him to stop crying. She really hasn't been involved in his life in any meaningful way since that day. That was about 22 years ago, so yeah I suppose I fit that bill.

I was 21 when he came to live with me. I grew up pretty darn quick at that point.