The conundrum of the modern family is really captured in the moment of birth. Both parents are terrified. Neither has ever taken care of a life before. And then in an effective miracle, the baby is here. The moms figure out what to do in 30 or 40 minutes. They realize they can provide for this life and it’s an amazing experience.

Meanwhile, we fathers stand back in our fear and relative cluelessness. We do our best to be good and provide for the mother and baby. But we are a second class parent. We leave the moms with too much to handle.

Quickly exhausted and desperate, our wives ask and then plead and then nag for help. But we don’t really know what to do and their requests just make it all the more overwhelming and unmanageable. We find ourselves spending more time at work where we are still seen as competent adults. Or entrapped in some other distraction: phone, email, remodeling the garage . . . Our once joyous and sexy relationship becomes a mess, if it even survives the first year.

It doesn’t have to go down this nightmarish path. We are just as capable of providing for our children. When we realize this and find out how, we can form a powerful team with our partners. An overwhelming struggle becomes an empowering challenge faced with love. Our wives aren’t lost in mothering and our relationships thrive in the beauty of raising a being. Our children get the loving home they need and we realize what it means to be a real man.

Full Frontal Fatherhood is a concrete path to this flourishing family. 

It all starts at the moment of birth. Can we stand in our fears and learn to love?