"Tiny, Smiling Daddy"

This one had to be my least favorite but I think it was the most creatively written. I also like how the story contained a lot of small back stories. They were necessary yet, did not weight the story down. Stew is deeply hurt by the article Kitty put in Self magazine about him. Throughout the story we see the father painting the picture to readers as thought he was the ideal parent (that only made a few mistakes) and that Kitty was just this out of control hard ass. He described Kitty's distance as she began to grow up and how much she changed after she became a lesbian. Stew admits that he made clear to Kitty his distaste in her lifestyle and well as his willingness to allow her to move out if she chose to, but not like it is revealed in the end. I found it bit troubling how he talks about how beautiful Kitty is. I've never been the father of a child but I would be a bit disturbed if my father thought of me in such a way. This also makes me wonder if Stew's disapproval for Kitty's homosexuality runs deeper than just the neighbor's stares. What I did like about this story is how even though it is told from Stew's point of view, his point of view seems to be a bit skewered. Most of the time, writers give the readers the main speaker's thoughts and everything is absolutely accurate. Stew's thoughts seemed to be diluted like he is ashamed at how he treated Kitty so he goes through lying to himself about how he handled the situation. At first I was tempted to sympathize with Stew because I've seen my family members do all they can to keep a child on the "right path" only to spit in the face for their efforts. But in this case, Kitty was being a typical growing girl. Everyone goes through a rebellious stage and the phase where we think our parents are the most uncool people we know, hell bent on ruining our public reputation. But in the end we learn that there was distance between Stew and his father as well so coming from a family that had distance issues, Stew's relationship with Kitty was destined to have some distance issues as well.