The real reason your aging Boomer father sits in the car for ten minutes after pulling into the driveway isn't because he forgot something-those are the only minutes in his entire day when no one is waiting for him to be anything - Silicon Canals

"I watched my neighbor pull into his driveway yesterday evening. Engine off. Lights still on. Just sitting there in the driver's seat, hands still on the wheel, staring straight ahead at his garage door. Ten minutes passed before he finally opened the car door and headed inside. I get it. I've been that guy. For forty years, I was an electrician. Started as an apprentice at eighteen, straight out of high school."

"My generation of men doesn't talk about this stuff. We were raised to shut up and get it done. Provide. Protect. Perform. That's the deal. But here's what happens when you spend decades being the rock everyone leans on: you forget you're allowed to be tired. I spent most of my working life believing that real men don't talk about their feelings. Unlearning that has been the hardest project of my life. Harder than any electrical job I ever tackled."

A man sits alone in his car for ten minutes after returning home, using the silence to catch his breath before reentering family life. He spent forty years as an electrician, starting as an apprentice at eighteen, building a business, and raising a family. The car functions as a transition zone between the confident work persona and the uncertain home role. A generation taught to 'provide, protect, perform' often avoids discussing emotions and assumes endurance. Decades of being the family's anchor can erase permission to feel tired. Long workweeks and absence at home led a wife to say she felt like a single mother.

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