The Difference of Being a Father to Boys and Girls

With this being Father's Day weekend, and the upcoming birth of my son within the next few months, I have been reflecting on the difference between being a father to a girl and to a boy.  The role for each obviously is pretty much the same.  But in my mind there are a few distinct differences: for my daughter my role is to be an example of the way the man she will marry should treat and respect her.  This is accomplished in my relationship and the way I treat my wife and other women in general.  I want to be the leader who molds her into a person with integrity, confidence and moral values.  For my son, my role is not only to be an example, not only to lead him but also to mold him from a boy into a man.  I love my daughter but I am just not equipped to be her primary role model or mentor into becoming a woman.  I want her to be able to enjoy being a girl who grows into a woman.  I want her to revel in being a girl and see in me the difference between a man and a boy.  But practically speaking, my role will only help her decision in a husband whereas for a son, I can help him develop into a man.  With all of this in mind, I have been more and more interested in people from years past who were the embodiment of men.  Ernest Hemingway, Jack London etc.  This morning in my browsing I came across this poem by Rudyard Kipling and I absolutely loved it.  It's from a time gone by and yet still applicable to today; in many ways a part of parenthood lost in today's politically correct, watered down, over compensation of equality society we live in.  I don't think I am alone when I say that sometimes it feels like a man differentiating himself by being a man can be looked down upon.  Just read this poem, and let it speak for itself.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! 

By Rudyard Kipling