Is This What Dads Do?

I got the strangest call from my daughter recently.  It wasn't really strange, but it wasn't totally normal either.  I can only paraphrase, because in my advanced age I don't always remember all of the exact words.

"Dad. Can you bring my black shoe to school?  I accidentally put on one blue shoe and one black shoe.  Can you come over now?"

As I'm not always in the mood to leave the house in my pajamas, I asked what I thought was a logical question, "Can't you just wear them that way for one day?"

"What??" I'm not really sure if she didn't hear me, or was just in disbelief of what I had suggested. Apparently, she is on the cutting edge of fashion statements - except when it comes to footwear.  This blue/black combination absolutely would not pass the smell test of her classmates.  My daughter, usually brimming with a contemporary sense of humor, was having none of my foolishness this morning.  Taking a last sip of my morning coffee, I resigned to the fact that I would have to get out of my pajamas and get dressed for school. 

I'm not a stay at home Dad.  Yes, I stay at home, and yes I am a Dad.  But I do work from home and have some responsibilities to the company for which I work.

The office attendant at school must have stories to tell.  I can only imagine what kind of strange and awkward requests they have to deal with during an average day.  As stupid as I felt walking into the office with a left shoe in my hand, it must have been equally amusing to the person sitting behind the desk.  I put on my game face and made every attempt to act nonchalant.  "Hi.  I'd like to leave this shoe for my daughter." It sounds so ridiculous even now, that I wish that I could have thought of something else to say.  The attendant gave me a piece of paper to write down my daughter's name.  I couldn't wait to walk out of the office.

And here I thought that my days of getting embarrassed at high school were behind me. 

Read more...

Encore Performance

There were no volunteers to help clean the dinner dishes this evening.  I didn’t expect any.  I was just happy to see that everyone had finished their meal.  It’s always a challenge to decide on a dinner plan when my wife is out of town.  I don’t want to go too fancy, because I know that my efforts won’t be appreciated.  I also don’t want to offer hot dogs or breakfast cereal every night, because I’m not that kind of Dad.  So, I’m reduced to low-key experimentation where I decide on a staple ingredient and slowly expand its horizons. 

Chicken was the clear winner tonight.  My youngest wasn’t interested, and voiced her preference for ice cream.   A slight shift to my authoritative voice, and a subtle sidestep to block the refrigerator, squelched that plan.  Now more than ever, we were definitely going to be eating chicken.  It never sounds too interesting when you say “chicken.”  Add to that “boneless and skinless” and you slowly back yourself further into a corner.  As a reminder that life is not always easy, the chicken thighs were frozen solid, so half the challenge would be to defrost them in time to cook them. 

Moms and Dads have to get creative when cooking for their children.  The fine-tuned palettes of adults, many times, don’t mesh with kids.  You try to make it fun and interesting.  Sometimes you succeed, and other times the dogs get a bonus meal at the end of the day.  Yes, there is luck involved.  But often the thrill of the attempt makes it all worthwhile.  I improvised a little due to a few missing ingredients, and I might have changed a thing or two in retrospect.  Overall, it was a good night. 

Oh, my daughters did get their ice cream for dessert.  They didn’t wash or offer to clean any dishes, but that kind of encore performance is one that I’m used to.  After all, I don’t love my daughters because they do the dishes.  I’d like to, but I’ll settle for them eating my tentative dinner creations.

Read more...