I’ve known for a while that I’ve reached the daddy phase of my life. Initially, it was a difficult transition but I’ve come to peace with it.

Embracing The Daddy Phase

A number of years ago, I recall a younger guy at the retreat referring to me as daddy. I wasn’t ready for it and I found it rather jolting. As someone who has usually looked younger than a lot of guys my age and has always felt younger than my age, I didn’t like being seen as older.

But older I was. Eventually, I came to accept and even embrace the characterization. Now that the outer shell and the personal experience of who I am are in sync, I’m also starting to see the benefits of the role. Other daddies are more comfortable around me and younger guys seem to afford me a bit more authority about most things.

The daddy-hood has also demanded of me that I become more of a leader than a follower. I’ve had to claim my authority and step up and lead.

In environments like the Men’s Knitting Retreats, leadership behavior felt very natural. In my day-to-day life being more decisive is a bigger change. So far I’m adapting well to it.

Readers’ Comments/Questions

On the previous blog recap of the retreat, Corinne writes:

“Thank you for sharing; I wish I had been able to enlarge the photos. Such talent!!”

My apologies for creating image galleries that didn’t open up images when you click/tap on them. I just assumed they would. They do now and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Current Knitting

I seemed to have misplaced the hat project I brought to the retreat with me. I just organized all the retreat bins/boxes/bags and the hat is nowhere to be found.

So I will continue working on the open-finger gloves.

I’m just up to the part where it gets fiddly…the finger openings. But I’m loving using the new yarn sit & spin (a yarn ball holder / lazy-susan type thing) that Dave at the retreat made for me on his 3-D printer. It’s amazing!