Fatherhood is

Holding tight

When all is falling apart

Letting go

When you know it is your part

Making time

When duty gives the call

 With tools in tow

Giving but your all

-Ronald Reagan-Quoted in Focus on the Family

Fatherhood can sometimes be walking the floor at midnight with a baby that can’t sleep. More likely, fatherhood is repairing a bicycle wheel for the umpteenth time, knowing that it won’t last the afternoon. Fatherhood is guiding a youth through the wilderness of adolescence toward adulthood.

Fatherhood is holding tight when all seems to be falling apart; and it’s letting go when it is time to part. Fatherhood is long hours at the blast furnace or in the fields, behind the wheel or in front of a computer screen, working a 12-hour shift or doing a six-month tour of duty. It’s giving one’s all, from the break of day to its end, on the job, in the house, but most of all in the heart. 

http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/blogs/Finding_Home/2012/03/01/ronald-reagan-on-fatherhood#cf