'I wish I had a sugar Mama'

by Carlos

I had a lot of jobs in my life, but none have made me question my manhood as this one. Not to mention that no job has brought questions of my manhood from others!
My father is dope! And if I could be like him I wouldn't question my manhood. Do most guys think like this? But I'm nothing like my father. Does that mean I'm not a man? I don't know jack about fixing cars. I can't lay concrete. And I wouldn't last a week in basic training. But my father mastered all these and so much more. So what did I learn from him? Can I say that I'm my father's son? Can I lay claim to manhood? It's interesting to me that the Lord allowed me to have this job, a master pooper scooper and bedtime story teller, to show me that I did learn something from my father, even though my manhood was challenged by myself and others.
One of my wife's co-workers actually said to me, "Yeah, I always wished I could get a sugar mama." Another guy, who saw me wearing my baby in a sling told me, "Boy, it must be hard to look like a man with that thing on." This military guy once said something that actually made me feel pretty good. He saw me in a sling, too and said, "oh, I got one of those... but I would never wear it in public." It made me feel good because I wasn't too proud to wear my baby.
I'm chuckling just thinking of these! They weren't even said to hurt me. The military guy was our nurse in the hospital when my wife gave birth last. And the other two guys were some of my wife's co-workers. They didn't mean to lay insult, but they opened their mouth and that's what came out. But I can't blame them, these were my own thoughts as well.
But after four years I think I can say that I actually did learn something from my father; he didn't like a lot of the things he had to do. Instead of fixing the car, I'm sure he would have rather been spending time with us. And he didn't like getting deployed, but that was part of the job. Laying concrete... well, I think he likes doing that. But my point is that he did those things because that's what the family needed. He needed to fix our 8 year old Corolla because we couldn't afford to have someone else fix it. That's just what the family needed.
When the choice came between my wife's dream job (I actually think it's her calling) and my dead end job, it was a no brainer. I still believe that women are better suited for this job (that's not a sexist statement!) but this is the best thing for our family.
So even though I don't wear a sling anymore, you can still find me singing the Dora the Explorer
theme song and playing the prince of my three little princesses. And I think I can call myself my dad's son because doing exactly this is being the man of this family.