Fatherhood: The New Age Dad

The first in a series on the joy, ecstasy, learnings, and travails of a first-time and hands-on father who is also gadgets freak, a clothes horse and connoisseur of the good life

- Magandeep Singh

As a soon-to-be-father I found one aspect of parenthood rather lacking for us men - there is no equivalent of the female tradition of old grandma level advisors for men. I was never sat down by my father and given advice about how to tackle anything really, certainly nothing including the word 'baby' and no, being told to not act like one but instead to man up and walk it off, repeatedly, doesn't count.

The only thing I got from my old man was concerning evading taxes or setting up the grill right to balance six patties for different levels of cooking. Parenthood and nurturing a child were topics which, just like expressing emotions or crying in public, were relegated to solo seances online with Google.

So here I was, am, about to become a father and trying to look for a support group to dispense advice that would come in handy and save me tonnes of time. Sadly, forget dads and other seniors, even my own peers friends, colleagues, countrymen were not too forthcoming in this department. It was as if all men have an unsaid pact to never discuss three things their salary, their underwear brand and any useful tips on parenting.

In retrospect, I surmised it wasn't that we men don't want to share, we do. It's just that you don't want to start a conversation in any social male-dominated circle with insights on nanny-cams. And in case you are the one seeking such information, the same problem of initiating the topic remains. It's like the most sordid elephant in the room, probably one with ED, everyone can see it but nobody will allude to it.