Happy Father's day

I never really thought a great deal about Father's day, mainly because we don't celebrate Father's day (or even Mother's day for that matter) in India. Although I am now a father for close to 4 years, I never remembered this day because my son was too young to understand. My soon to be 4 son has now started understanding relationships and when he wished me Happy Father's day (albeit on coaching from my wife) and said that I was the best Dad in the whole world it didn't sink in completely. It still hasn't.

Being a Sunday, yesterday was full of activities and I forgot about it till late in the night and today morning. Lying there in bed re-collecting my day I started thinking about what my son said to me about being the best dad in the world. Although it is very easy to think that we are doing the best we can while parenting, but to me it is a tall order and a lot of expectation to live up to. Every now and then, my son says to me that he would like to be, in his words, "Just like you". And I sometimes wonder, do I really want him to be "Just like me"? Every now and then I remember

And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"
from the Harry Chapin song, Cats in the Cradle. Am I really being the role model for what I want my son to become when he becomes a man? Although being a dad is fun it also is the second most difficult job in the world (first being the mother's job). I don't want to be a famous person or a celebrity. All I want to be a great dad and a celebrity for my children. Someone they can look up to as a role model and look forward to spend time with even when they have their friends to hang out with.