What makes you weak?

[Pekka]

Children (well, my child) makes me weak. I love her to death. She's now 1 month old and so does plenty more than in her first week. Yesterday, she was staring at me straight in the eyes as I was putting her to sleep and was making funny faces and just wondering, you know how small baby wonders and stares at things... one of those looks she gave me, a long one. I figured I am hers forever. What ever she asks, I must provide. Mom can be the voice of reason for all I know.

But at the same time it makes me weak. I think that the will to punch people in the face is gone now. Because they are someone's kids too, or have kids, or whatever, but it always comes back to the little darling... and it would make her sad. So the only scenario where I can still punch people in the face is if she is threatened somehow.

Oh, look, it's snowing outside. Must stop posting.

[Aeson]

Grats Pekka

(I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities still for you to punch young men in the face once she reaches dating age )

[Pekka]

That's different. I'll be closer to 50 then anyway, so I will have to have some help, like a baseball bat. Or a shotgun.

[ColdWizard]

Don't overlook the intimidation factor of a machete.

[SlowwHand]

Whatever works.

[Pekka]

Oohhh Machete, yeah, that's good!

Hey Sloww, since you have a daughter as well, albeit different age, how do you deal with the whole dating thing? Like mine is a month old and I'm already thinking of different weaponry and one-liners to keep the bad guys away. How do you tell a good guy from the bad one? They're all bad as far as I know! A good guy is someone who would protect her but not be "I own you!" type of psychos... not too masculine because they're always gay anyway and my daughter deserves a man in her life besides myself.

So how do you know? Do you just trust she will make the right choice? I need a plan. Like... I need to start training her for this task. Is that letting her make the choice that is hers to make though? Or am I really interrupting too much by training her for 18 years first? We need an interview process or something.

Also, cool signature

[SlowwHand]

It's how they're taught, starting now. Be firm in your discipline, without being cruel. You don't want her to learn cruelty. What they learn to believe in, including believing in herself. Teach her some self defense. It can't hurt to know things. Your daughter will do things on occasion that disappoint you, but that's natural. You don't really want a little Pekka clone anyway.

[BlackCat]

Dammit Pekka, you are a finn and suposed to use a knife

I don't have children myself, but I have seen some of my friends turning from nutcases to responsible pillars of society overnight when they became parents (well, I've also seen some continue to be nutcases ). Best wishes for you all

[Dinner]

Everyone is popping out kids like mad these days. I swear I've typed "congratulations" half a dozen times in the last week on facebook.

[Kuciwalker]

Holy **** Pekka started making mini-Pekkas?

[Pekka]

Sloww, you're damn right I don't want another clone... I'd like her to be smart and happy. Self defense definitely. It's kind of scary to think to be a model of a man to her and that in a way she'll see other men through that for the rest of her life in some way. So I can't be a jerk, not that I'd be a jerk to my daughter but regardless, I can't weird her out about men. Like the fact that all men are pigs. I can't, because she's smart, so she'd user her deductive logic, so if all men are pigs, you're a man, you're a pig. I like pigs. And then she comes home with a real pig. A pig that doesn't even come inside the house because he knows I can smell his bad attitude.

BlackCat, thanks. I never was a nutcase. At most, perhaps a little impatient, thinking that the ends justify the means, in my case at least. Perhaps thinking I was more special than I really was. But NOOOooo I don't know how to use a knife... I mean not professionally at least no. I hate knives. I almost have a phobia about them. One of my biggest fears is that someone stabs me. Like when thinks look that someone might become aggressive, my first thought is that they might have a knife and they might actually use it. I really hate knives, I hate the sharp edge thing, there's something extra hideous for me, I think others are not so afraid of knives. I don't know why, perhaps because I've had few knife accidents, I've cut myself by accident pretty bad once, cutting all my fingers good and once I accidentally axed my hand as well. In fact I hate all things that are sharp.

Oerdin, I know! Three (3!!!) of my friends are having babies as well + two of my cousins! (I only have 4...). So what is that all about?

[DaShi]

Also, cool signature

Having a daughter turns Finnish men into Texan women?

[BlackCat]

Don't worry, that is just danish racial slur - Finns wear knifes, brits can't cook, italians can't make cars etc

[Pekka]

I think it's a slur all Scandinavians use against Finns. But for a good reasons. I somehow believe it's a fact and tend to avoid Finns these days. They're uncivilized beasts with inferiority complex and low self esteem. It's a bad combination and makes for angry drunks who will beat their wives at home for their own lack of sense of pride. There's two things they do in bars, 1) let's go find women who will have sex with us, which fails most of the times because a girl does not want to take 10 guys to have sex with, and when that fails 2) beat someone up. That someone is always someone who is alone or at least there's less of them. So Finns always beat up people when there's no risk, and play the victim when there is a risk. Bunch of knife toting asses if you ask me.

[Elok]

Congratulations, Pekka. My brother had his first daughter years ago. He has an interest in Japan, so he got himself a whole bunch of weapons like nunchaku, sai, etc. (he might have had a kukri too, not sure), with the plan of putting them up on the wall opposite the front door so whenever a kid came in to pick up his daughter for a date, he would see and receive the indelible first impression of some hardcore medieval ****. Now, he later had a divorce and the girl's with her mother, but he's since remarried and his second daughter is about eight months old now. So he may revive the plan. Food for thought.