Because I'm over enamored with my own cleverness:

Over on a livejournal community, I ended up posting a response to someone stating how ironic it was that between them, Bruce is a better father than Clark.

Well, I disagreed with that. Vehemently and with far more words/effort than I probably should have. But since I rather like the post, I decided to duplicate it here for possible discussion. Because I'm an egotist and overenamored with my own cleverness.
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"I'm glad someone agrees with me. I've been kind of frustrated with Clark's and Kon's relationship. It's kind of ironic to me that Batman is actually the better father."

That's not really a fair statement to make, I think. For one, Clark never chose to take on a child to begin with. He had his genetic material stolen and a child formed from it to be used against him. This is an act that I'd consider metaphorically a rape, at the very least. (Not all that different from Starman, when the Mist has sex with an unconscious Jack Knight and thus is impregnated with a baby). Clark isn't a father here, he's a victim, and the fact that he's opened his arms to Conner at all, isn't blaming him for the manner of his conception, proves he's a very big person.

And by my criteria, that statement's still inaccurate. My criteria is as follows: intention, effort and results.

In terms of intention, let's look at both for a moment. Batman's "children" are soldiers in his crusade, trained harshly and dispatched on the street in dangerously eye-catching costumes (I don't care if Dick designed it, I wouldn't let my ward go out like that) where upon they're put in incredible danger. It's not as if these kids are metahuman with the whole "With Great Powers Come Great Responsibility" thing. There is nothing these kids can do out there that a fully trained adult cannot. And they had to train a tremendous amount to get to this point as well, placing their bodies under remarkable stress, just to make them fit and able to go out every night and face people who want to hold them hostage, hurt them, torture them and kill them. And there have been casualties.

Now, what does Clark do? He gives the kid his name and sends him to Smallville. Yeah, nothing happens in Smallville, and yeah, Clark could be more of a presence in his son's life. But Clark did the best he could by placing the kid in a home with people he knew with 100% certainty could deal with raising a superpowered child with all the love and support he could need. They managed quite well with him after all. Now is this best for Kon, maybe, maybe not. But Clark's *trying*. He's got the kid where he can be guided and supported, and kept out of random danger except for when with the Titans.

I mean, it's all well and good to say that Kon was happier in Hawaii, but he was also facing dangerous situations everyday. Here he can be as protected as possible.

So in terms of intention: super soldier for your crusade vs putting a kid with a good family that you know will support and love him regardless...I can't see anyway that Superman doesn't win there.

Effort:

Well, Batman *is* more of a presence in his "kids'" lives, I have to admit. Clark's got a more hands-off approach. But then *is* that necessarily a bad thing? I mean, Clark doesn't know anything about child-rearing, is very career oriented in both senses: civilian and superhero, has a career wife. They couldn't give Kon what a kid needs. And would that be fair to Lois? To raise her husband's cloned son? One that wasn't even obtained consentually?

Now Bruce gives attention to his kids, but is that a good thing? In Batgirl, Cass had a death wish because she once killed someone and that's so much against who Bruce was that she couldn't deal. Tim's suffered isolation because of Batman's long time insistence that he keep distant and secretive with Young Justice, and is under such pressure to succeed that he's basically been carving away all the parts of his personality that aren't suited for a Robin. When's the last time we saw him really relax, or play D&D with friends, or geek out over cars or computers?

In contrast, Clark's distant, but he does play a role. In Teen Titans, when Kon's skipping class, he comes and talks to him, and it's not treated like a one-time thing. It's portrayed like he comes to check on Kon a lot.

So in terms of effort: well, suffocating destructive pressure versus complex-creating hands-off-ness...I suppose they're tied really. But I figure having a few complexes is better than suicide or pathological self-dissection, so I'll give Clark this too.

And finally results: It's hard to judge this really, because the kids are still developing, but let's try:

You have Dick Grayson: a competent fighter, warm and emotional human being capable of forming bonds with many people...and is also a basket case of insecurity and uncertainty to the point where both Outsiders and Nightwing indicate he needs a lot of therapy.

Jason Todd is dead...okay, back and evil. But still.

Tim Drake's molding himself so much into the perfect partner for Batman, he doesn't really know who he is anymore. Except that he doesn't want to be Batman...which seems to be inevitable. It says something though that after the initial shock, no one was really surprised by how he turned out in Titans of Tomorrow. (And he's the only one who doesn't see Bruce as a father figure to boot)

Steph Brown is dead, another victim in Bruce's crusade.

Cassandra Cain has never had the chance for a normal life. Bruce never insisted she learn to read, or tried to keep her off the streets until she got settled into a real life. She went from being on the run from David Cain to being another vigilante who's life is all about fighting. Oracle does her best, but Batman's not biting. Cass is still incapable really of holding a job on her own, is vastly uneducated (which Bruce could have had fixed by now, he's got access to specialists all over the world). Bruce is better than David Cain...but that's not saying much. "At least he doesn't shoot her in the back" does not a good father make.

Okay, now lets look at Clark's one and only attempt: Kon feels isolated, lost, lonely. He's just discovered with an unmistakable certainty that he can be controlled and that his powers mean that he can easily kill if he's not careful.

In a sense, Kon is very much like a child of rape in the real world who's just discovered the truth behind his conception. Doubts come crashing down. It becomes: "My god, my father is a monster!" "My god, I share half my genes with a *monster*!" "My god, what if it's genetic! *I* could be like him!" "My god, my dad violated my mom!" (comedic gender shift aside, I would personally consider a lot of the crap Lex has done to Clark as a violation...not in the least creating a child to fight him) "My god, when my mom looks at me, does she see *me* or *him*?" "How can she love me at all?"

The thing is, Kon's issues if you look at them in a metaphoric sense, well, they're no different from that which most teenagers face. Most teenagers feel like no one understands them, like they're alone and don't know what they're going to do with their lives. They're resentful of authority and people who think they know better, but at the same time know they want what's best for them.

The whole thing about how dangerous his powers are is a realization that Kon had to come to somehow. As Clark undoubtedly has. When you're that powerful you could easily hurt someone. This isn't Clark's fault.

And the last bit, well, that's not so normal, but again, that's not Clark's fault. He's the victim here and he's trying his best. And Kon knows that. *That* is why Kon's got his brain so wrapped around the idea that his genes from Clark are where all of his "goodness" comes from and that he could so easily fall. Because Clark *is* good and poor Kon suffers from a lot of perceived inadequacy that it's easy to blame on "inferior genes".

So let's look at these results: emotionally tortured basket case/dead and evil/self-constructed machine/dead/unable to live a normal life vs what amounts to be a normal teenager, suffering exaggerated but still recognizeable difficulties we've all had to face. Clark wins there as well.

So by *my* criteria, I'd say hands down, Clark's the better dad.