She was more empathic with our son. When he'd say he doesn't want to walk up the stairs be himself cause his feet hurt him, for instance. I'd tend to rationalize, and think that he's just pretending to be carried by one of us.

But really, the non-emotional situations don't matter that much. They are essential for the parent-child bound and their emotional development. Self-confidence and ability the empathize later in life will crucially depend on how these cases are handled.

Aren't you making a pretty big assumption that all fathers share your lack of empathy?

That says nothing about fathers and everything about you. I'm empathetic to a fault and I wouldn't be at all surprised if I were the parent that did better in these emotional situations.

edit: I forgot to explicitly state that I am a male, just in case that wasn't obvious.

I'm always surprised at how much more patient my wife is with our son than I am. She will constantly engage with him and play with him for much longer than I am able to.

Different here. I am usually more patient. My guess is, because I am working and not around the kid all day.

An interesting but not informative tale.