The good kind

This CNN opinion piece made the rounds on Facebook last week. In a nutshell, the author's goal is to encourage uninvolved fathers to rethink their role in their children's lives. His primary target is the dad who works during the week, plays golf on the weekends, and seldom takes an active role in parenting. As the world's grown-ups have often noted, kids grow up very fast and before you know it, your offspring is off at college or perhaps living with an unemployed tattoo artist named Smudge in a one-bedroom apartment in a bad part of town.

I am happy to report that my husband is not an inattentive father. Yes, he spends too much time playing games on the PS3, watching "Farscape" on Netflix streaming (remind me to tell you sometime just how much I hate that show), and reading comic books.  But, he does spend a lot of time with his daughter. He helps her with the zippers on her dress-up clothes. He carries her when she wants to be carried. He takes her to the park and pushes her on the swing. He works a second job so that we can afford to, you know, eat. He's a good dad.

Yesterday, we went to a music festival and he spent the afternoon carrying around a glitter-encrusted star wand that our daughter made at one of the kids' activity tents. Keep in mind that P is a former Marine and is about 6'3".  The glue was still wet so he couldn't shove it in his pocket or anything. Then he carried the paper plate tambourine she made right after she completed the glitter wand. Last night we went to a concert held at our neighborhood park. It was P who chased our daughter into the leafy playground with bug spray to make sure she didn't get eaten alive. He drew the line at attending a Faerie Festival with A and I yesterday morning (I don't know why he didn't want to hang out with a couple hundred little girls wearing wings and sprinkled with glitter), but he is game for just about anything else.

Happy Father's Day to my other half. You're a good egg.  We love you!

Comments

Lisa said…
awww... Happy Father's Day to your man. :)
June 19, 2011 at 3:31 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's been a minute, but let's talk about my b*o*o*b*s

Image
I'm in the sixth grade. I'm sitting on the floor at my friend Sharon's house. Rachel is there, too. My well-meaning friends turn to me and gently let me know that I "really don't need to bother wearing a bra." They aren't wrong. I'm wearing one, but the situation doesn't particularly warrant it.  Two years later, I found myself sporting a C cup. My mom, a talented seamstress, made me a dress at about that time. It was a slim-fitting column dress with a matching jacket, as I recall. The white fabric had large polka dots; we jokingly called it the Wonder Bread dress. My mom took my measurements. 36-24-36 At some point in history, those numbers were considered "perfect measurements" for a woman. This was 1984; I'd like to think the world as a whole is less concerned about such things these days. I'm confident my daughter has no earthly idea what her measurements are. She just knows she's cute.  Growing up with a fun array of medi...
Read more

On Being Patriotic

The list of adjectives I assign to myself is pretty long: clumsy, organized, competent, uptight, etc. One that might surprise you: patriotic. I fully understand what it means to be an American and am darned happy about living here. But, I have a beef (that part won't surprise you). I've grown tired of certain segments of the population thinking that they've cornered the market on patriotism or that they can dictate precisely how the rest of us express ourselves when it comes to our shared country and flag. Sometimes it seems like the Toby-Keith-boot-in-yer-ass brand of patriotism drowns out the rest of us. For the record, I don't believe that patriotism requires a love of NASCAR, a disdain for immigrants, a Republican voting record, or a preference for country music. Nor does it require adherence to a specific religion. I've seen Facebook posts from some of my friends and acquaintances that call for all of us to return to the "Christian principles on which ...
Read more

14 Weeks

Image
My baby is leaving me in 14 weeks.  She and I started touring colleges in May of 2022. When I applied to colleges back in 1988, I was an English major so there were no auditions. Colleges basically just said, "Sounds good. Come on in." I was the first person in my immediate family to go to college and as a whole, I don't think we understood the importance of campus visits and such. I ended up being fairly miserable that first year until I transferred to a school closer to home. For my daughter, I wanted to make sure she had an opportunity to see lots of college campuses so that she had the best shot at figuring out what she wants out of the college experience. I wanted her to look at elements like campus size and location, diversity, activities, distance from home, and distance from the nearest "big city" (since performers often head to larger cities with active theatre scenes after college).  Last summer, we began the daunting process known as "getting int...
Read more