(Updated Picture, but not updated dates below)
If you have known me any length of time, you've heard me speak about these people above.
I married into being a (step)father when Amanda (12) and Josh (9) were eight years younger. Then came the terror of their sister Erica (6).
This Father's Day (yesterday), I mentioned to someone on Twitter that being a parent was like being in the Peace Corps "the hardest job you'll ever love." Fellow parents, can I get an "amen?"
Being a father is a different thing from being a mother. If you want the graduate level course on understanding it, watch Bill Cosby's "Himself." One thing in the relationship between most children and their parents is clear who is mostly in charge. Cosby said it: "I am not the boss of my house. I don't know how I lost it. I don't know where I lost it. I don't think I ever had it. But I've seen the boss's job... and I don't want it."
Thankfully, my ex-wife and I work hard to balance being the boss together. We need to, we are outnumbered.