“That’s a great idea!”

Those are the words that spilled from my?loving son’s mouth when I?said?”no more kisses for you” as?I was leaving the house this?morning.?The only reason I even said that to him is because for the last several weeks he’s been running from me when I try to give him a kiss good-bye in the morning, or a goodnight kiss at bedtime. The truth is I was trying to guilt him into allowing me to kiss him. The reality is I gave up on the cheeks some time ago, I just wanted to kiss his big ol’ just-like-daddy head. Is that too much for a dad to ask for?

At the risk of sounding geriatric I must say that kids grow up so fast. Nowadays?my boy?only wants to have “battles” and he wants me to teach him my boxing moves (I used to train?for several hours a day?in my teenage years – my trainer at the time was my uncle, the one who now trains angels).?Who knows, perhaps boxing will be his thing?- it certainly isn’t soccer. And that’s great, boxing is a real man’s sport, but he’s only five and he’s already done with daddy’s kisses and still reveling in mommy’s.

He’s a guy, I’m a?guy,?and?as such I’m happy to toss him arouund a bit if it makes him happy, but I also don’t want him to be grown before his time. There’s too much of that going around as it is. Come to think of it we’ve replaced a lot that girly stuff with manly stuff like me crushing him before he goes to bed and he greets me with “sup man?” and a grin when I?get home from work.?His mother doesn’t get that, it’s our thing. So the love is still very much there, it’s just different. It’s the way dudes do things, like the hug/handshake thing we do when we run into a friend in the street. I can handle that.

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