I wish I can claim all the credit

Last week, my eldest son graduated from college. Finally! A college graduate in the family!

Ralph finished Accounting and will be taking his review in preparation for the CPA board exam in October.

Of course, being the proud father that I am, I immediately uploaded pictures of his graduation on my Facebook account. It wasn’t long before the pictures got a number of Likes and comments from my relatives and friends.

Congratulations were given both to my son and me. Ralph for finally graduating and me for having a son finished college.

It’s every parent’s dream. One of a parent’s greatest accomplishments. Now, it’s my greatest accomplishment as a single father.

I wish I can claim all the credit for Ralph’s graduation. But I know I can’t... I just can’t. I wasn’t just me.

Oh no!!! I have a teenager for a daughter!!!

NOTE: This post was written in March 2011, when my only daughter turned 13. It was one of the earlier post in my old Single Fatherhood blog.

Last January, my daughter turned 13. Yes, I know. That was already two months ago. Well, it didn't sink in on me then yet. She was still a baby then… I’d like to think that she still is.

There were apprehensions, sure. At the back of my mind, paranoia was stubbornly bugging me. I was trying my best to brush it off. How bad could it be? I mean, she was not the first teenager in the house! She was the third, actually.

But she was the only girl… and the youngest. Yes, her brothers didn't bring me much concern when they turned 13. I refuse to be bitten by the double standards of child rearing… nothing could go wrong!

Or could it?

Single Fatherhood

While single parents are quite common today, single fathers are still a rarity compared to their female counterparts. The first reason being, it is most common that it is the man who abandons thus leaving the woman on her own (and I’m not exactly proud of it).

The second reason is that, single fathers do not really stay as such for long. For a lot of reason, one being men could not really live on their own for so long. Yes, we can all blame it on our mothers who used to do everything for us – even finding that missing pair of socks.

Another reason for their rarity in existence is perhaps, not many single fathers would admit that they are such. While not all would really deny their status, some, especially the younger ones would readily do so when they are in front of a woman they seem to have their eye on.

Of course, these are not all the reasons, and neither are they absolute. There could be more, and a much deeper explanation for them. These are just what I could recall at the top of my head right now.

This is my first post for this blog, and  these are what entered my mind. Being a single father for more than four years, I wonder why there weren’t too many single fathers with whom I can share experiences with.

And so this post introduces my new blog, Single Fatherhood, as a take on the life and assume the role of a father and a mother.

This is single parenting… from a man’s point of view.