Cows to milk.
I don’t know this young woman’s dad, but he doesn’t seem like a very good one. I’ll provide some anecdotal reference of my own, but I wouldn’t be surprised that many of us would feel better about their father than this asshole.
My pops sacrificed pretty much all of himself to raise our family (nine kids). He was downright selfless about it in all his moments of attending swim-meets or coaching soccer, seeing choir concerts and math bees, selling candy with the Boy Scouts, paying for who-ever’s speeding ticket or insurance, helping out when we fucked up rather than telling us how stupid we are, helping anyone move from apartment to apartment, or when there wasn’t money for rent or food or healthcare. Pretty much anything for his children, with reasonable, well understood limits.
We’re all (my siblings) doing our best growing up, we’ve all moved out and its just him and Mom now. Its all taken a toll on him. He’ll fall asleep at 10:45 watching ‘The Wire’ with her, and wake up early in the morning around 4:30 or 4:35, not knowing what to do. He has completed all his chores. What to do at that time in the morning. No cows to milk or babies to soothe or drunken children to pick up from the police. No news papers to deliver. Less responsibility as a father.
He’ll never be rich, never drive a beamer, never make a name for himself. Maybe he’s a loser or something, but he is one of the kindest human beings I’ve met in my time and I’d pray a thousand fucking rosaries for this young woman to have a father who understands that investing time and money into your family pays in returns that are not countable in any form of currency. And I don’t even own a rosary anymore.
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