Dads vs Fox

Dads being men are such an important element in the world that we live in, one thing I've realized though is that we often forget why this is important.

Recently I did an event for my sons school. It was an outdoor event and all of the kids came. It was a lot of fun in a lot of ways, because I got to spend time with my son and his friends during the school day and they got to spend the whole day outside. I didn't get to do many of these things when I was a kid, but things are changing and evolving, with this being one of the changes.

For the event, there were lots of volunteers. What was unfortunate for various reasons, is that most of the volunteers were the moms. There thankfully were a couple of dads that were there though! Myself and four others for quite a few kids.

At the event, there was all of a sudden a bit of a ruckus on one of the sides and I heard someone yell "Fox!" which was confusing, because living in this area my entire life, I've NEVER ONCE seen a fox before! It was really fascinating and interesting! Naturally, I was immediately thinking of the safety of the kids and my son so I headed right over to where the situation was unfolding.

I didn't get a picture of it, but it was an adolescent red fox, similar to below source.

I was really surprised because it was during the day that this event was, we were about mid-morning and the first thing I thought of was this thing had rabies! I started to head over quicker because I absolutely did NOT want a kid to get bit by the fox, if it was rabid especially.

With there being a few dads at the event, the three of us were headed right over to where this thing was so that we could protect the kids. The moms all ran with the kids in the other direction. I thought this was likely the best thing to do, as the moms could wrangle the kids while we were handling the animal situation.

We ended up scaring the thing off, it wasn't rabid that we could see but it was young and curious, potentially protecting it's territory. We got it to jump back through the hole in the fence that led it into the area and we made sure to stuff the hole with all kinds of sticks and objects so that it couldn't sneak back into the stadium. We also patrolled the whole side of the fence where the thing came from so that it didn't try to pop back in down the line to come back.

I think what really stuck out to me was the natural instincts that kicked in for these types of things. We heard the situation and immediately got into gear to go attempt to address the problem. I don't profess to be the most masculine person in the world, but I am working on it in a balanced way. Not punching people in the face if they look at me weird, but also making sure my presence is known and don't mess with me type of thing.

The moms naturally grabbed all the kids and corralled them in the other direction while the men of the situation, most of them, went to handle business. I was accompanied by a cop and potentially a plumber or construction worker-type dude. The three of us got the animal away, secured the area and made sure that there wasn't going to be another incident. We had no idea if the thing was sick or rabid but we immediately made progress towards the situation so that we can fight it off if need be and get the kids away, even if we ourselves got hurt in some fashion.

These are the things that are so important about the inherent and biological differences between men and women. There are a lot of things to be said about the attempted intentional destruction of these differences to sow chaos and discord among the population. Yes there will certainly be people who don't fit into these, but at an overall population level, these are the things that men and women do and are good at. We should not tear down the ENTIRE population and cultural norms for quite frankly the miniscule percentage of people who don't fit into these groupings. Evolutionarily, those tribes would have failed and died off.

We are never sure how we will react to a situation like this until we are encountering it. Yeah we THINK we would do X, Y or Z but until we are faced with the actual situation, we really figure out what we will do instinctively and without thinking. I wasn't the one leading and running headfirst into the thing which may or may not have been the right approach, but I didn't hesitate for a second to go right with the other men in the situation to go after the potential danger. I am glad that I had that reaction, because most importantly my son saw, as well as the other boys around.

The boys in the world need to see men that do things like this so that they learn this is what to emulate. We need to make sure that we are the models for them in as good a way as we can, not cowering in the corner and screaming but approaching potential danger to get it sorted out because it's the natural thing that we do as men. I think that was what, thinking back, was the biggest take away and what made me proud that I naturally acted the way I did. I, and the other 2 dads, showed the boys of that school the way that we should be acting. Not foolishly or overly aggressive but calm, assertive and protective of the people that were there. I am glad that I was able to participate in that!

What about you, have you encountered situations where you weren't sure how you were going to react, but thought afterwards you are happy with the result? Let me know in the comments!