Why Do Men So Infrequently Seem To Know The Grades Their Kids Are In?

It’s a more endemic problem than maybe we openly discuss.

Ted Bauer
3 min readDec 4, 2023

Whenever you write something about fatherhood and you’re not a father, you get a few hucksters from the cheap seats telling you that you “wouldn’t understand” or “don’t know what it’s like.” Got it. I’d agree with that. When you’re not a dad by reasons of infertility, which is a shitty thing to go through that I wouldn’t wish on any other living soul to be perfectly honest, you can also get accused of resentment. Does Infertility inspire resentment? Absolutely. But that part can be managed out a bit.

I had noticed this trend about a decade ago, when some of my college friends started having kids who were entering school-aged years, and often the dad would say: “Amy? I think she’s in third this year?” It often seemed like he really had no clue.

A few months ago, I was bartending at Buffalo Wild Wings (#nice), and I had a couple come in. They were sitting at the bar, ordering their 15 wings and random old fashioned drinks…

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Ted Bauer

Mostly write about work, leadership, friendship, masculinity, male infertility, and some other stuff along the way. It's a pleasure to be here.