My experience with fathers has been…sucky. Limited, but very, very sucky. Mine was more concerned with his career than with me. My friends fathers were either carbon copies of him, or too drunk to be a father or work.
More recently, of course, there was my sister's husband. I was pretty optimistic in the beginning. Thought he'd be a better father to them than mine was to me, but we all know how well that turned out. He totally ditched those kids! And the worst part is, he pawned them off on me!
I love Ryder and Lennox, I do. But my role model as a mom wasn't much better than my dad. I always used to say that I wouldn't have kids. And if I did, by some horrible accident, he'd need to have a pretty good grasp on the whole parenting thing, because I sure don't know anything about it. And, though I never said it, I guess I kind of always hoped he would love them way more than I had experienced in my life.
But…that doesn't explain why my heart swelled up when I saw Joe lunge at the mayor like that. I mean, it's obvious he knows what he's doing with the kids. And…it seems like he really loves them. Which is great. They deserve a father-figure who really cares about them.
But that has nothing to do with me.
Does it?