What dads really expect

By Ryan Salzwedel

The male "father figure" has not been portrayed as the brightest by Hollywood lately. We've seen Ward Cleaver evolve into Al Bundy, Homer Simpson and most recently, Modern Family's Phil Dunphy. The latter three, despite what may be deemed as subpar IQs, seem not only to put food on the table, but to surround that table with a massive home. Not bad.

A trailer for the new film "What to Expect When You're Expecting" shows a group of dads razzing a new dad on his assumptions vs. reality.

That got me thinking: Why not round up a few dads to talk about our "expectations" and how the reality turned out.

The answers follow.

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, Daddies and daughters

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What was it like that first moment you realized you were going to be a dad?

President Obama had just been inaugurated earlier in the day. He promised change, and boy, did I get one. My wife had not been feeling well, so I told her to see her doctor. When I got home she was waiting for me in tears. She was helping me take my bag off, so I knew something was up. I immediately thought the worst. "Cancer?" She replied in a crying trembling voice, "NOOOOOOOOOO." I immediately followed up with "Are you pregnant?" She replied, "Yeeeessssss." She bawled even harder. I burst into laughter, gave my wife a huge hug and kiss and said, "Holy sh%$, I'm going to be a daddy."

Sean Leonard, Chicago

I was cautiously joyful. We had been trying for a few months, and we were already in our mid-30s. We were excited, but we were in a state of disbelief, too. The reality is still setting in, and the more it does, the happier I become.

I would say the immediate, more drastic change for us, was that we lived in a one-bedroom condo downtown. So we jumped right into buy house/sell condo mode.

Jeff Garretson, Orland Park

For some reason my mind reverted back to adolescence and all I could think about was "How am I going to tell my parents?" Then after realizing that I was, in fact, a grown man, I came to the conclusions that a) I did not have enough cash on hand to run off to Mexico, and b) we could handle this.

Ryan Salzwedel