Difficult Joy

Here is the mother, there is the child – Eberhard Rathgeb pays tribute to the third in the trio: the father. And he does so in the only manner appropriate for such intimate issues: on the basis of personal experience.

Do fathers love their children less than mothers? Fatherly love lacks words. Everybody talks about the problems of women trying to reconcile the demands of parenthood and work. Eberhard Rathgeb says fathers should not behave as if the same problems did not exist for them, too, if they really love their children.

Discussion of deeply private matters must be based on personal experience. On this principle, Rathgeb puts himself the crucial question: Why is it so difficult to decide to have children? And why does it seem harder than ever today? With memories, scenes from the present, and reflections on life's unsystematic ways, he tries to give answers – and to stress what seems to get lost in the noisy debate on the problems of the family: the importance of this uniquely life-changing experience. Rathgeb's book addresses not only fathers but also mothers wanting to know more about the man they are starting a family with. And it is about children – children who have mothers and need fathers.