--My first hand experiance as a masculine dad of a 4yo son in a feminized society.--

About a week ago, I drove the three hours to a city near by to take my 4yo son to his first airshow. I am a pilot and aircraft mechanic, and my kiddo is obsessed with airplanes as well; always playing with toy airplanes and helicopters....and on the occasional occurance that I allow him to watch youtube videos--they are all airplanes all the time! So, taking this future man to an airshow would be a fucking kickass way for us to hang out and have a good time enjoying what we are both interested in, right? Hahaha....

We get to the show and we watch the first few acts. He was diggin it. Then they start bringing out the fighter jets, fuck he was not into the roar if those engines at all!! He started screaming and kicking and freaking out. (Now here is an important part of this story...he had ear protection in the entire time!!!!).

My parenting style is not one of coddling, and soothing. This is my son. I will guide him on the path of being a self sufficient man. (Much like TRP community is doing for me--albeit MUCH later in life). I was always close to him, I would tell him that everything was fine and it was just loud noise and nothing was to be afraid of. But I would NOT pick him up, I would not comfort him and I would NOT recognize the behavior he was exibiting. Periodically let him know that I was right behind him...but this was his battle to get through, not mine.

Here is when things got really interesting. While he was screaming and crying, I had about 8 women from the crowd actually approach me to try to give him some earplugs. I said thanks, but he already has them in (his hands were covering his ears). One girl actually offered the plugs, and after I refused, told me that "he isn't doing so well". i told her that he would be fine and waved to her to fuck off... she began shaking her head. She then walks over to her husband and procedes to try to get him to say something to me--he did not comply. Not sure if he was too scared to, or he saw what I was doing and decided to leave me the fuck alone.

After that, I looked around the crowd and noticed that there was litterally a crowd of women glaring at me for not coddling my son. Some of them pointing at me while talking to their husbands/boyfriends. I was truly afraid of having social services called for not treating my own son to the standard of how a woman would have him treated. But I still did not let up. I mean really, what the fuck else could I do anyway? My house is 3 hours away from this place, and this was one of the last acts. Bout a 20 minute walk to the car of him freaking out anyway...and it would be over by the time we got there. May as well use this as a learning opportunity for my little man.

After the jets finished, my kid stands up. I tell him that he made it through and that he was real brave for toughing it out and gave him a high five. The kid was proud as shit of himself for having gone through it and was grinning from ear to ear! He still said he didn't like the jets. But he was happy as shit that he went to that airshow and was talking about it for the next 20 minutes back to the car.

Let me know what yall think about this one. Without TRP I would have just caved to what the women were trying to do. Now, understanding more about how women operate, I was able to do what I saw best for my son despite what was going on around me. And he is now stronger for it. (Case in point, loud motorcycles don't freak him out anymore!). This was just the first time I experienced how much I am under fire from society as a masculine dad first hand.