80 more things that make men cry
Hurt, sung by a dying Johnny Cash, gets to many of you
Bambi's mother dying. Bagpipes. Silently falling remembrance poppies. There are a lot of things that make men well up. Here's a selection of your responses to 10 things that make blokes cry.
1. "Getting an invite to the wedding of the girl you've quietly loved for years."
Jambo
2. "When Richard Todd quietly says he has some letters to write and walks through the gates at RAF Scampton in The Dambusters."
Tom, Bristol
3. "My son decided to arrive early, and the midwife was an hour away. I ran home from work to deliver my son while my three-year-old daughter watched happily from the foot of the bed: 'Are you going to catch the baby, Daddy?' she remarked. I cried tears of joy for the remarkable gift of life. Every man should be there for the birth of his children."
Jose M Feliciano, St Cloud, FL
4. "Having my son jump on me and knee me right in the family jewels. Guaranteed to bring a tear to any man's eye."
Adam, Northampton
5. "My recent vasectomy did the trick - don't let anyone ever tell you it does not hurt."
Steve, Humberside
6-7. "The poppies falling in silence from the roof of the Albert Hall at the Festival of Remembrance is one which gets me: the sheer waste of life. On a different note, the cry of 'Freedom!' coming from Braveheart as he is disembowelled also makes me cry - it's hilarious."
Andrew, Bristol, UK
8-10. "Rocket launches, the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, Beethoven's Ninth with volume loud enough for my ears to handle... these are a few memorable tear-jerkers for me."
Ajay, Boston, US
11. "Male voice choirs do it for me every time. It reminds me of my proud Welsh grandfather."
David R, Pontivy, France
12-14. "Nothing makes me cry. I do have on-going problems with dust at weddings, funerals and during weepie films though."
Tony Croft, Leeds
15-17. "Football, proud dads, Battle of Britain; it doesn't matter. A bloke with a mote-choked eye is more effective than a plate of oysters in my experience. Don't try faking it, though. We always know."
Jane, London
18. "Being told by the girl that you love that she wants you dead."
Josh, Derby, UK
19. "There is only one time when it is excusable for a man to cry; when his faithful hound sacrifices itself to save his master. Truly heartbreaking."
Andrew, Edinburgh
20. When kids are forced to grow up too fast... the saddest thing."
A Man, Earth
21. "They shut my local pub *sob*."
Andrew, Banbury
22. "Visiting the battlefields in Normandy and the graves of soldiers who were only boys had me and my husband weeping."
Lyn, Milton Keynes
23. "Watched a local primary school sports day recently - to see all of the children trying their best brought a lump to my throat. Very, very dusty."
Lance, Felixstowe
Equine effort
24. "The sound of horses galloping does it to me. Whether it's the start of the Grand National or watching the horsemen charge during Return Of The King, it makes me well up every time. I put it down to Peter O'Sullivan's brilliant and emotional commentary from when I first started watching racing."
Jamie, London, UK
25. "When Russia beat Spain in the final of the European basketball championship in the last second on my late mothers birthday. Emir Kusturica's film Dom Za Vesanje (Time of the Gypsies)." These are very Eastern European phenomena."
Mikhail Vasilievich Zamdayev, London
26. "The video to Hurt by Johnny Cash, it only seems to make men cry, the harder the man the more it gets to them."
Tim, Merseyside
27. "I reckon men cry at odd times because they withhold the tears at more obvious times - it has to leak out some time but social conditioning frequently hinders this. This possibly explains why I often feel like crying when I'm reading some children's books aloud to our two; Floss and The Secret Garden can raise a few."
Matt O, Forest Row
28. "Saying goodbye to my mum, for the last time, when the crematorium groundsman and I scattered her ashes."
Alex R, UK
29-31. "My partner shed tears of relief when our daughter was born at 28 weeks, tears of grief when we realised she would be disabled and tears of anger when she was bullied at school."
Beth, Bangor UK
32. "I cried last Tuesday when I realised I had to give up a relationship that just wasn't working and couldn't be put right for all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world. But Harry Dean Stanton's monologue to Nastassja Kinski does it for me every time. I must stop watching Paris, Texas."
Jan, Mid Sussex
33. "Dedication to the Fallen during the Festival of Remembrance: 'They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.'
Gets me every time."
Brian, Oxford
Kelly Holmes at the 2004 Olympics
34. "My wife thinks I'm heartless because I didn't cry when we got married, I didn't cry when my children were born, and I haven't cried when my relatives passed. However, seeing great sporting achievement take place, especially athletics track events, sometimes bring a proud tear to my eye. Kelly Holmes doing the double got me, fantastic stuff."
Iwan, Sedbergh, UK
35-36. "Seeing my mum cry is an automatic cry. But for some reason, when I see OTHER men cry it really makes me want to blame the hay fever."
Lee, London
37. "My friend cried at a movie starring the former wrestler The Rock. He claimed it was too hot... we no longer speak."
Neil Vallelly, Coleraine, N Ireland
38. "Pictures of the Earth from space seem to make me well up, it just seems to have a profound effect on me that I'm unable to sum up with words."
Ash Amed, Oxford
39. "The strangest thing that has ever set me off was listening to the radio and hearing Concorde land for the very last time. I don't even like planes but it made me blub."
Dave, Leicester
40-42. "The last time I cried would have been at a mate's wedding. He got emotional during the speeches and that was it for me. Also anything of people showing extreme bravery, especially to save others brings a tear to the eye. Oh and 65,000 people singing the Welsh national anthem at the Millennium Stadium."
Alex, Carmarthenshire
42. "The last page of Winnie the Pooh, as Christopher Robin explains about school - does it every time, without fail. Oh, and when Bambi's mum dies."
Mike, Addlestone
43. "When I'm going on a long trip and know I won't see my mum, dad or sisters for a couple of months, then the goodbye always gets me. Nonetheless, I feel fine five minutes later."
ConĂșil, Belfast
44. "My other half has a very severe upper lip. Ex-Air Force, he's coped with close relation funerals and major family feuds, despite me falling apart. But he wept buckets whilst watching Sophie's Choice."
Sundae, Crewe
45-47. "When my adopted son spontaneously called me Dad. When I realised that a friend was safe after thinking he could not have survived an incident. Sometimes when I'm looking at my wife and she doesn't realise it."
Richard, Cloudcuckooland
48. "The film of JFK's toddler son saluting his father's passing coffin does it for me every time."
Peter, Belfast
49. "Watching my son get married. I'm not even going to go to my daughter's, I'd be incapable for weeks before and after."
Dave Cross, Malvern, Worcs
50. "Just yesterday. I met my youngest's boyfriend for the first time and realised I'd lost my little girl. I managed to get home before I blubbed. Oh no, I'm doing it again now whilst I'm writing this."
Zorba Eisenhower, Seldom, Wilts
51. "My boyfriend cried when we finally got together, saying 'it's not often men like me get what we long for' - such a sweet thing to say. Unfortunately, seven years later he claims he was acting."
Rebecca, Leics
52. "Spitfires, Concorde and the roar of a Merlin or Deltic engine will always start me off. Such power and such grace.
Graeme, Edinburgh
53. "Listening to Belgian firemen play Last Post at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. Played every night since soon after the end of World War I. Stopped only during the German occupation in WWII and started again as soon as they left."
Roger, Norwich, UK
54-55. "Since first becoming a dad almost five years ago, I cry at anything that even vaguely shows either suffering and loss or any noble characteristic such as bravery or valour. It doesn't seem to matter if it's Doctor Who or a serious, real-life event. I even cried watching Finding Nemo."
Kit Barker, Sheffield, UK
56. "What always gets me is the veterans on Remembrance Sunday. In their wheelchairs, shaking with old age and still making it to give respect to their old mates. After having lived a compromised life for 80 years or so (for some of them) with the trauma of the memories and nightmares that don't go away, now that is sacrifice."
Mat, UK
57. "Kindness to children."
Aasim, Durham, US
58. "I cried at the birth of both my children. They are now teenagers, they presented me with the most wonderful handmade Father's Day card, filled with poems, quotes of mine and endless praise and thanks for the guidance and advice I have given them. I wept openly, it was the best Father's Day present ever. I showed the card to my parents and it had the same effect. I am a security officer on the outside, but a big old softie at heart."
Steven, Shrewsbury
59. "Christmas productions at my son's primary school - something about the slightly out-of-key sound of children's voices when singing carols always makes me well up. And adds to that Christmas sparkle."
Dave, Newstead Village, UK
60. "Flying - the thin air and free G&Ts make people more emotional. I blubbed like a baby in business class watching Gloria and Mumbo shake it out in Happy Feet."
Stuart, San Francisco
61. "After visiting my grandfather's grave in Hermanville-sur-Mer War Cemetery, France for the first time in August 2005 with my father, I noticed that his headstone didn't have any personal message engraved. I asked my father in all innocence why this was so. He promptly burst into tears, saying that the British government charged families in the 1940s for this service, and his newly widowed mother with two young children couldn't afford it. I promised him there and then that I would arrange it for him. Finally in December 2007, I received pictures from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission showing that it had at last been done. I got the pictures printed and rushed them to him as he lay in hospital. He finally saw them on 5 December, 2007, and gave my mother the thumbs up. The next day, he succumbed to secondary cancer. That gets me every time."
Dave Eastoe, Framfield, UK
62-64. "The Paralympics - EVERY time. That and watching Muhammad Ali lighting the flame in Atlanta. It must be genetic, as my Dad turns into a sodden mess at the 'trunk holding through bars' scene in Dumbo."
Will, Oxford
65. "RSPCA adverts - tear-jerking, guilt-inducing, wallet-grabbing, phone-dialling brilliance."
Wotski, London
66. "Any film that shows some inner spirit and where they show pride does it for me. Biggest culprit is Cool Runnings at the end. Have to look out the window so nobody seems me shed a tear. That or grab a pillow off my fiancee and hide my face in shame."
Daniel, London
67. "Bagpipes. And they make the hairs on my neck stand up too."
Paul, Bathgate
68. "The one song I can never listen to on my iPod when I am away from my wife: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack. Guaranteed to reduce me to jelly."
Tobias, London, UK
69. "Realising the entire universe is interconnected in mind-boggling ways."
Majid, Richmond, US
70. "Three words started my hubby off crying - welcome home sir. This was said to him by one of the police escorts he had from Gatwick airport to the McIndoe Burns Unit after being flown home. He had been severely burned in an explosion and had been med-evaced to the UK. He had been temporarily blinded by the blast and he said the man's voice was so caring he just cried. It still affects him now."
Olwen Roach, Hartlepool, England
71. "Welsh male voice choirs bring a lump to my throat, also barber shop singers. Fortunately, you don't hear either much at the work place."
Barry, Croydon, England
72. "Ayrton Senna dying. I think that's allowed."
Andy C, UK
73-75. Singing Abide With Me at the FA Cup Final - after 27 years, we were back and I couldn't quite believe that we were there. That and when Glenn Miller dies in the Glenn Miller story. Oh, and I must admit to a few gulps of pride when the kids do something special."
Steve E, Warrington
76. "My grandad was old and frail but wouldn't have missed his grandson's (my) wedding for the world. He made it to the ceremony despite his ill health. After the main ceremony, I went down for hug (and kiss) from my grandad. Despite talking myself into not bawling like a baby, I just couldn't control my tears. My cousin who was wielding the video-camera made sure he captured all of it on camera for posterity. My hard-man act fell like a pack of cards and I haven't been able to restore it, at least with my wife."
Ramesh, London
77. "I cried at the weekend as I wrote my 12th anniversary card to my wife. I realised how important she has been to me, how much I appreciate her and how grateful I am she puts up with me. A mixture of gratitude and guilt then."
W John Bond, Leicester, UK
78. "Visiting the Imperial Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in Oosterbeek, The Netherlands, and seeing the rows of headstones marking the graves of those who died in Operation Market Garden during WW2 is a highly emotional experience, and one's vision can get a bit watery at the thought of so many young lives wasted."
Patrick, Lincoln
79. "How can crying at your wedding not make the top 10? I married the girl of my dreams three weeks ago, shed a tear when she walked down the aisle the proceeded to cry all the way through my grooms speech. I am not ashamed one bit."
Nick Teige, Ashby-de-la-Zouch
80. "I got caught out listening to Radio 1's essential mix just the other day - momentous, inspiring stuff just set me off (and I was in public but with shades). Also, I find it hard to watch Remembrance Sunday without getting emotional. The enormity of all the pain and suffering can get to you. It always feels better after and figure it's a natural reaction for the body to have. I say your not a man unless you DO manage a cry."
Rene, London
