“The growth that comes between a father and a son is a two-way street; it makes a life complete.” This is a line from my poem “Children That Belong to Other Men”.

Such is the reflection of “Celebrating Men and Boys”, the 2025 theme for International Men’s Day (19 November).

I have been motivated by my son to be a better man. Fathers and poets from across the centuries have also inspired me.

“The Child is Father of the Man” is a line from a poem by William Wordsworth. But what does that mean?

Foundational Character

Educator Simran Khurana posits that seeing a rainbow produced awe and joy when the author was a child, and he still felt those emotions as a grown man.

“He hopes that these emotions will continue throughout his life and that he will retain that pure joy of youth,” she writes. “He also laments that he would rather die than lose that leap of the heart and youthful enthusiasm.”

Author Bhumika Sharma writes that “The Child is Father of the Man” means that a man’s basic nature does not change with age or time.

“A child’s behaviour during childhood continues throughout his or her adulthood,” she writes.

The term may mean that, as children, we invent ourselves as individuals, i.e., that we raise our own adult self.

Growing Up Together

But to me, “Child is Father of the Man’ means that maturation takes place in the involved father. Some people do not grow up until faced with the responsibility of an offspring.

The accountability one assumes for his child is very heady stuff. I sometimes wonder who matures more in a father/child relationship – the dad or the kid.

These are ideas to contemplate on International Men’s Day – and every day. Men, celebrate the time you can spend with your boys; childhood is much too short. Sons, seek out the good things in your dad and strive for those attributes. Spend some time together.

Celebrate Men and Boys on 19 November and always.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.