DUers, what did your dad do or say during your childhood that has influenced how you live

[Warren DeMontague]

267. Thanks. It's sad, he died way too young.

Although he seemed old to me at the time.... not so much, now.

We weren't.... close- and he wasn't going to win any father of the year awards, at least not with the kids by his first wife (me and my siblings) ... I remember a conversation I had with him when I was a young adult, and I said I wasn't going to have kids "until I have my shit together".... I didn't intend it as a shot, but I think he may have taken it as one. I don't blame him. He fucked up in many ways, but he also had a lot on his plate.

Age has given me perspective on a lot of things, including just how young and ill-prepared he was for having a family when he did.

He came from a generation of men that was, by and large, not real well equipped to have deep emotional connections with their kids; not to say none of them formed them, but certainly there are elements to my own approach to being a Dad that come from knowing, or suspecting, what I missed. I was always determined to have myself not be some sort of distant detached mystery to my kids.

He also turned me on to Monty Python, back when it was far and away the funniest and weirdest thing on tv, in 1972 or so.