We don’t get to choose how we come into this world and that can include our parents. My husband, and I’m sure there’s many like him, did not have a great relationship with his own dad. He was not interested in his kids, mean, and physically abusive on occasion due to unchecked anger issues. It breaks my heart when he talks about his childhood and growing up in that house.
Now that we’re expecting a little boy soon, he’s told me that he’s afraid of ending up like his own dad because it’s all he’s known and he’s got some of his father’s anger issues that he has been working on and improving ever since we’ve been together. But still his dad looms large in his mind and us having a son is making him doubt his ability to be a good dad.