If there is one thing most fathers have in common, it’s the sure and certain knowledge that what they want to do and what they have to do are not always the same thing.

Indeed, for fathers accustomed to standing in the freezing rain on the sidelines of some sporting field the way my own dad did, what they want to do (get back into the car with the heater and radio on, tuned to the races) may only rarely correspond with what they actually do.