Must-Read: Fatherhood Advice

Cool kid!

Sure, maybe having kids isn’t in your future. Maybe you never see yourself having enough money, or security, or feel like you can ever find the right girl that you can settle down with and raise a few kids. But that’s how you’re feeling NOW. Odds are, soon enough, you will start feeling a little different, your life will take on a bit of a focus, and you’ll be able to see yourself as one of those “kid types.” And then it’s just a matter of time before getting those kids. And then the harder take comes around: Trying to raise them right by turning them into actual cool human beings. Which is where fatherhood advice comes in.

Author Simon Kuper starts by explaining the amazing joy that happens as you begin to see your spawn as an actual human being rather than a “thing,” and then goes into what is happening with her daughter. Namely, she has begun getting into history. Says Kuper:

Well, I thought, it makes sense. Children think like ancient Greeks: violence, magic and superheroes. And the stories are hard to beat. I mean, the Trojan horse — hot dang! But then we moved onto actual history, and she liked it too. Perhaps due to living in Paris, my daughter developed an unhealthy obsession with Napoleon. Many a dinner was spent telling stories of his childhood in Corsica or his ?time out for the rest of his life? (known to historians as ?exile?) on St. Helena. Soon my Napoleonic knowledge was exhausted. We proceeded to Henry VIII and his six wives (?divorced, beheaded, died/divorced, beheaded, survived?).

So Kuper’s advice to turn your children into awesome people: Get them into history. It all makes sense. Head on over to the above link to see Kuper’s rationale, and then start piling up on the history books. They will be rad folks in no time!