Don't be thrown off by the title. This book isn't about your occupation or the class you fall into per society's standard. The main focus of this book is to provide you with a method and lifestyle to become a better father who achieves the standard for fatherhood you long for in your heart. Working Class Dad is a book I wish I had when I first became a father twenty years ago. A real communication and relationship building manual for fatherhood. A father who follows the principles in this book will give his child freedom from the mindless demand of creating pride in the heart of his or her father. I've spoken with countless broken people who only ever wanted to make their father proud. My aim is to show fathers that this is the wrong target to place in the sights of a child. The true measure of a father is in his consideration for his children, rather than his children's consideration for him. I present applications and perspective that can apply for any father, whether in service to our military, whether going through divorce, whether lost or found, whether just starting out, or whether closing down shop. I truly kept all fathers in perspective as I penned from my heart. Book excerpt -- I am reminded of my father and how he has impacted my life in so many positive ways. However, his relationship with his father, on the contrary, was very unpleasant as it was full of drunken violence, discouraging words, intimidation, and a complete lack of affection. His father has now passed, but my dad has told me that his father only told him he loved him less than the five fingers on his one hand; over his entire life. But he never allowed that pain to stop him from being the father he believed he could be. And he became polar opposite to how his father verbally communicated love to him. I never once felt not loved by my father, because he has told me he loved me more times than all of the fingers, on all of the hands, of all of the people, I have met in my life. He made a conscious decision to not repeat what happened to him by word and deed and I am a better man for his effort and consistency. You have no excuses to pass pain along to your children and you have no right to roll the responsibility of fatherhood on anyone else because of the situation or circumstances you are in. A father's great responsibility in his children's life is to protect them, not harm them. Perhaps you don't see it as an issue, because maybe nothing is "wrong" with you. And it may not be a matter of anything being "wrong" with you at all. Perhaps it is best to consider your child first. We all have different life experiences and cannot jump to the conclusion that if it worked for me, it obviously would work for them as well. This way of thinking is the very culprit that breaks down and destroys the lines of communication we so desperately need. It is a complacent behavior and not seeking to improve the relationship. Parenting is never over; it just grows and develops into different stages of life. Most parents would agree that the major objective is to lead your children into a better place that allows them to build on what they were given, just like you hopefully did. Your children are not your enemy and do not deserve to be reminded of how you were treated as a child, but rather to be presented with the promise and accountability to reach a better future. All of the hard-earned content proposed serves to build a structure and mindset for the implementation of my greatest secret for success as a father, which is revealed in the final chapters of the book. I will provide you with my own secret for you to connect with your children and produce the long-lasting relationships that create unbreakable bonds. One secret that is so treasured, I specially requested permission from my five children to share. And with their obvious approval, I present Working Class Dad.
