Becoming a father

Learn about: Becoming a father from Armin Brott,...
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Becoming a father

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Becoming a father is one of the most earth-shattering, life-changing experiences that you will ever have. It will change you in all sorts of ways. I find these changes that happen absolutely fantastic. I remember one of them, one of the most profound ones, and this realization came to me in the middle of an intersection after I had just run a red light. I of course I said to the police officer that it was a yellow light. But I remember at that moment thinking, "I can't drive like this any more. I have places I've got to be, people who are counting on me, and I cannot drive like a maniac." And a lot of guys have this same sort of thinking about the future. A lot of guys will exercise more. They'll stop smoking. There's nothing like watching your kid running around the house, your 3-year old smoking a pencil, imitating you smoking a cigarette to realize, "Oh, I'm having a tremendous influence on these kids." Guys will exercise, again. Fathers are much less likely to be involved in criminal activity than non-fathers because they realize that there's a pretty good chance that they could end up getting locked up. What happens in a more abstract way is that the world kind of gets to be a bigger place. You drive down the side of the road and you see trash on the freeway, and you say when you were single, when you didn't have kids, you think, "Okay, trash on the freeway. That's too bad." When you have kids you look at that and think, "I don't want my kids growing up in this world where there's trash all over the freeway." So you become a person who either becomes a politician or you go get onto the school board or you volunteer, you adopt a section of the highway. But you realize that issues that didn't really mean much to you before are really big issues, and they're going to affect your kids.

Learn about: Becoming a father from Armin Brott,...

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Armin Brott

Dad, Author & Radio Host

A former Marine, Armin Brott has devoted the last 15 years to providing men with the tools, support, and knowledge to help them become the fathers they want to be—and their families need them to be. His seven critically acclaimed books for fathers have sold well over a million copies. Titles include The Expectant Father: Facts, Tips, and Advice for Dads-to-Be and The New Father: A Dad’s Guide to the First Year. He has written on fatherhood for hundreds of newspapers and magazines and is a frequent guest on such television programs as the Today Show. He also writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column (Ask Mr. Dad), and hosts a syndicated radio show (Positive Parenting). He lives with his family in Oakland, California.

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