"So I got this email asking if I'd like to contribute to the Father's Day Friday feature as a guest blogger, and that's cool. Now comes the hard part. What to write about?

"I can make it a funny post, testing the boundaries by saying (and I'm speaking on behalf of all stay-at-home-dads) that Nina from the Sprout Channel is C-U-T-E. I can end the post with a funny, "Sprout, Please!"

"Or I can write about the way I'm learning from my son by experiencing for the second time things I've forgotten. Like standing transfixed for an hour and watching a caterpillar. For my 18-months-old boy the world is a constant source of wonder, and amusement, and disappointment, and joy, and sorrow, while for his father the world is this abstract he apathetically inhabits. And then I see him following the caterpillar and I remember curiosity. I see him say "Hi" to my neighbors, which is exactly one word more than I've ever said to them, and I remember the sense of community I'd felt as a boy, when the world was much smaller and made much more sense. When he doesn't want something he pushes it away, and when he does, he goes for it. There's a new lesson every day."

"Or I can write about a specific event in my boy's life, which would illustrate the way typical fathers deal with stuff. Like the time he fell off his crib straight on his head as an infant, and I picked him up and hugged him, even though I probably shouldn't have moved him. I was shaking. When the ambulance came, they told me he was fine. I apologized. They said my baby was so cute, I could call them any day.

"Or I can turn this into a rant against the companies that just don't get it. Like 1-800-Flowers, which used a "Mr. Mom" in a Mother's Day promotion. Or Playtex, which advertises a cup as "Designed for Mom," not for anything related to breastfeeding, but because it's durable and dishwasher safe. What, you think it's easy for me to tell people I stay at home? I didn't grow up like that, you know. My dad vacuumed the couches. That's all. He got my mom kitchen appliances for her birthdays. I don't need supposedly family-friendly corporations to burden me even more when I'm trying to redefine my self-identity, thank you.

"Or, I can thank Kate for her email and for the opportunity to write my guest post, and use this platform to wish all fathers an early Happy Father's Day. I've never worked so hard. I've never had a boss who yelled at me so much. But I've never had so much fun. Happy Father's Day."