Am I a bad Father?

I am back. I was away for a bit because of technical difficulties. That and abject laziness. I tried on Thursday for a while to get on but it was a "no go". I do not blame anybody, but those damn tech gremlins. In any event, I have to ask the question, "am I a bad father?" and I will recound the story. I do not want to seem needy, I was going to write "too needy" but that would imply and an element of neediness and I am not sure if I am needy so to imply it in the question would be skewing the question.

Before I begin, I wanted to give a birthday shout out to Willie as it was his b-day on Thursday, so let's all give him a round of applause as he is truly deserving.

Here is why I ask the question. On Wednesday evening the lad and I are outside, tossing a ball on the lawn after dinner, with the wife sitting and watching. It is getting past 7:30 and the lad, being a bit sweaty, is in need of a shower. To be clear, I love my boy, but he, like his father, is a "time sucker". He finds a way to just "suck" time doing nothing but living in his own head. This means that he can take a twenty minute shower, even when he does not want to take a shower. I am beginning to think that I should just ram his head in the toilet and flush (ye olde swirly) to get it all done quicker but that would be cruel.

We are playing catch with our baseball gloves and a tennis ball. The goal is for him to make eight consecutive catches. As it is getting time for his shower, we decide the next catch will be the last. I throw him one and he has it in his glove, turns his glove upside down and drops the ball. Haha! The next throw hits him the shoulder as he now attempting to look like he is going to catch the ball, but dropping it so that he can put off his shower. He throws the ball back to me but misses me about five feet wide to my right. I retrieve the ball from the edge of our neighbor's driveway (we share a lawn) and throw the ball to him from a further distance, so it is a bit of a harder throw by me. The ball is coming at him about waist high and all he has to do is get his glove on it. He does not and ball hits his square in the nuts!

He gets angry and FREAKS out. He is screaming how I did it on purpose and throws his glove at me. Now, in his defence, my laughter could not have helped and I can see how he would think that I did it on purpose. I did not mean to do it. I swear to you all, but it was funny. My wife was not pleased and did not find it funny. I then asked her that if she saw that on AFV, would she laugh (the answer was yes) so that the only difference was that it occurred to the boy.

I had to apologize to him. Not for him not catching an easily catchable toss and getting hit in the nuts (that is his responsibility) but for laughing at the scene (not him, exactly). I mean as, I explained, it is funny because it is not me (Homer Simpson). It is as simple as that. I love slapstick and somebody falling or getting hit in the nuts is funny (if it bends it is funny, if it breaks it is not funny, Woody Allen via Alan Alda in Crimes and Misdemeanors). It is funny as long the person getting momentarily hurt is not me. I am honest about that. Anyway, I explained that him and all was well.

So I ask the question, does laughing when your son gets hit in the nuts while playing catch, make one a bad father? Ciao!