Married... with children

It's possible that I find this more rankling than many fathers of larger families because we are a recently blended family. After all, it was just a couple years ago that I was called Dad by one little girl, and as God poured out His blessings on me, today I am called Dad, Daddy, and Dada by 5 wonderful children. They do this of their own will - we've never asked them to do so, which to me is a precious gift indeed. This is a lot of change without a lot of time to adjust, and perhaps it's just me being overly sensitive.

Nonetheless, I regularly find myself in situations where others voice an implied disdain for my choice to marry a woman, love her no matter what, and be an involved dad with the kids who engages with them and connects to their hearts rather than saying "no way, I won't do that because I'm more concerned about the approval of men than encouraging you". This sometimes involves doing things that might feel a little foolish to a man who once lived for the approval of others, like painting your daughter's nails or putting the stick figure kids on your SUV after your family buys them for you for as a gift. Sometimes the comments are subtle, sometimes not. Now I hardly expect everyone to want to go out and have 10 kids, but the implied statement is always that being a husband and dad is some sort of ball and chain that reduces you to a sub-man, not the biggest blessing one can imagine.