“It was completely out of character for me,” says one father of three. “One minute I was nice dad and the next I totally freaked out and scared my son out of his wits with an anger I didn’t know I had. Everything was fine by the end of the day, but I am so disappointed in myself. And where the hell did that come from anyway?”

We often feel as though being a “good” parent means never struggling with raw emotions, never losing our balance and never having to “grow” from our so-called failures.

In our culture of perfection, few people recognize that fathers can experience the same anxiety, guilt and pressure as mothers, manifesting their private anxieties and pain in ways that are not often discussed, let alone shared as common experiences with other parents. In fact, “good” dads do suffer the pain of temporary disconnection with their children, and yearn for a way to express, make sense of and pre-empt it, and most of all, discover how to reconnect with their kids that cultivates a stronger relationship and mutual understanding through compassion.

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