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

3 of 5

What were the first few nights like when the new baby came home?

We made a ton of mistakes, but luckily nothing too awful. I remember the first couple of nights when my in-laws left us to be with our son for the first time. We both looked at each other and said: "Are you as scared as I am?" I think any new parent is going to be scared a little bit. I think we remain a little scared for the rest of our lives because we want our children never to get hurt or do anything wrong, that's why we get on these, "No, don't do that!" or "Stop jumping on that!" I think you have to allow the notion that no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to completely protect them. It gets a tad bit easier when you start to have more children.

Sean Leonard

It was a surreal feeling, driving home from the hospital with my new family. I was able to take some time from work and other daily responsibilities. This was a good thing, because sleep was not in the cards for a while. I think my biggest mistake was anticipating that during paternity leave, I'd have all this time to catch up on projects and DVRed shows.

Jeff Garretson

I remember that first night home with Leo. We put him to bed around 9 p.m. and thought, "OK, we will see you in the morning!" Yeah right! He was up every hour, on the hour, blaring. We fed him, changed him and rocked him, the whole nine yards. We were spent. At some ungodly hour, I woke up to Leo crying. His diaper was around his ankles. I remember yelling to Pascale, "What kind of half-a#% parenting is this?!" Needless to say, we got the hang of it. Eventually.

Ryan Salzwedel