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Dad, you need a wife

A new film, about a father bringing up two sons alone, reminded me of my failings and successes during nearly ten years as a single dad.

Single Dad, Jim Bishop writes...

Gouges on the lino commemorate my worst moment as a single dad. During a furious argument, my elder boy, then 15, picked up a mug and smashed it on the kitchen floor. I went silent but he threw another one. I should have hugged him or at least stayed silent. But I picked up the entire draining rack and hurled it, with all its freshly washed contents, on to the floor too. Glass ricocheted everywhere. A shard hit my leg, cutting it.

A new film, about a father bringing up two sons alone, reminded me of my failings (and occasional successes) during nearly ten years as a single dad. The Boys Are Back starring Clive Owen as Joe Warr, a man struggling to bring up his sons after the death of his wife, looks at how an all-male household copes without a mother figure. Last week I saw it with my boys (Jack, 15 and Robbie, 17). The film provoked fervent family discussion because it was such a novelty to see a set-up like ours on the big screen. “It was good,” said Robbie, as we left the cinema. “The scene where the teenage son argues with Joe and smashes crockery on the floor made me realise that we’re not total freaks”

Read more on this story from The Times Online.