I have to say that, while I think my husband is a wonderful husband, I don't think he's that great of a dad. I feel like telling the kids to stay out of his sight. That I'm always saying, "This is the sort of thing that makes your dad mad," or, "Take care of this before your father sees it," or something to that effect. And he can't seem to do anything with them that doesn't have a learning experience planned into it. Learning isn't bad, and it's okay if kids take something good away from every experience they have, but it should be allowed to happen naturally, shouldn't it? Not with him. If we take the kids to go launch rockets, it has to teach them to be careful and responsible, and he makes sure he pounds the lesson in good and deep. If we take them to play miniature golf, by God they had better learn to pay attention to whose what is where and whether or not it's their turn.
I think I just learned something about him. Seriously. Just now!
All those things he hates doing - watching non-educational tv, going swimming, going to the movies, going fishing - he doesn't see that anything can be learned from them! It's like, God forbid he should just be able to go and enjoy himself and the kids.
He seems to have a very old fashioned perspective - kids should be seen and not heard. Only I don't think he really wants to see them, either. He says that he kind of regrets not having more kids. Really? That strikes me as pretty bizarre, because more often than not, he doesn't really seem like he wants the ones he has.

the last trail...the next path