What do fathers want for their sons?

It’s no secret that I don’t have sons. I often wonder how I’d cope if I had male offspring. After several years of raising girls, and after watching how the male children of my friends play, I’m not sure I’d be terribly good at it.

That said, I am curious about the father/son relationship (I’m equally curious about the mother/daughter one too but I’m not writing about that today).   I was, therefore, very interested in a media release sent to me by antiseptic healing cream manufacture Sudocrem. If you’ve ever looked after a baby, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the stuff.

After an unfortunate babysitting incident, I’m afraid our baby’s bedroom carpet is also very familiar with Sudocrem. It may be great at preventing nappy rash, but as any experienced parent knows, babies will happily apply it to anything given half a chance.

Forgive me, I digress. The company has carried out a survey amongst fathers to establish what they want their sons to achieve by the age of 16. While the results of the survey are interesting, I was actually more impressed that Sudocrem seemed to be making an attempt to reach out to fathers. Baby products are so often marketed solely at mothers, something I personally find deeply irritating as men do in fact regularly change nappies.

You might be wondering what the survey discovered. Put very simply, chivalry, it seems, is not dead and sport is not as highly valued by dads as stereotypes would suggest.

Of those asked, 75% of fathers said they wanted their sons to help an old lady cross the road by the age of 16, while 25% want their son to secure a clutch of top grades at GCSE. A comparatively small 16% wanted their sons to be asked to captain a sports team.

Fathers seem equally clear about what they don’t want their sons to achieve by the time of their sixteenth birthday. Going on a first date before the age of 16 was seen as an achievement by fewer than 40% of respondents. Not surprisingly, computer game success was bottom of the charts. Just over 10% felt that having a son who had the highest ranking on Call of Duty would be cause for celebration.

But what of a dad like me that only has daughters? What do I want my children to achieve by the age of 16? I think I could summarise my wishes as follows:

• To understand the true meaning and importance of charity

• To have empathy and understanding of others

• To have a desire to learn and understand the importance of education

• To speak at least two languages

Finally, I would be ever so delighted if they would replace the carpet in the baby’s bedroom. I can wish, but I doubt it’ll ever happen.