Male Redditors who have good relationships with their fathers, what did your father do that made him a positive influence and stuck with you?

My son is starting school this summer, he lives with me and his mom. He was our first child.

I love him, but he's so similar to me and yet feels so different. I can see us having the same relationship as i have with my father, related and on good terms but never really doing anything together. Him and his mother are so good at doing things together, but i can never really seem to find something that can engage the both of us. When we force it there always seems to come a conflict that we both handle really badly.

I would like to do just a little bit better than my own father, but i just can't figure out how to approach the problem.

I come from a family that does emotions really bad. Saying something simple like "i love you" is hard for us. My wife has a much easier time with stuff like that.

Any advice?

/r/AskReddit Thread