Possible Clues:

• Visible
• Obvious; seemingly true
• Manifest
• Clearly visible
• Dad's backing Mum perhaps, that's obvious
• 'Sounds as if air may be this, being a soft sort of father (8)'
• Pen a part stupidly obvious
• May sound of the air that father will be up to being a father
• Appearing as such but not necessarily so
• Seeming to be but not necessarily so