What is Father's Day Without the Irony?
Last year on Mother's Day, my baby girl, who learned to walk only
weeks prior, fell down the stairs in our home. I was so proud on that day,
until I wasn’t. It was as if the loud thumping of her new Asters (http://www.asterchaussures.com/?lg=en)
hitting each hardwood step on the way down was in protest to the whole day,
which had been set aside to honor mothers across the globe. Obviously the next
day we installed a safety gate at the top of the stairs.
This year on Father's Day I found some irony (tell me if you
agree) when our (5-month-old) car ran out of gas on our way to brunch with two
generations of fathers manning the controls and two babies (plus me, mom) in
the backseat. Obviously the lesson learned from this is just too obvious to print...
Again today, I was teaching my diaper-wearing 2.3 year old about
using the potty and wearing underwear and pulling down the underwear and peeing
in the potty when … she peed on the couch. She was curled on her back in her
white dress with no bloomers, legs splayed in the air, fingers gripped around
her toes, when her face turned to a stunned look and I heard hard liquid
hitting the leather couch. The flow made a tiny gushing noise as it carved out
a path between the cushions. Was this some cry for attention; some deliberate means
of communication? Never has her diaper failed and never was there a more timely
opportunity. Here I am thinking she doesn’t ever listen to me so what do I
always go on about; well not only was she listening but she was demonstrating
her comprehension and then some... Obviously potty training is to commence
immediately. (And hopefully the “Queen of Potty Training” is accurate when
promising us a three-day turn-around… (find Lora Jensen’s method at www.3daypottytraining.com). )
Then again today, another story of irony… I was at the playground
with my baby and toddler talking to a neighborhood mom of twins about how
difficult it is to watch two children at the city playground; how they run off
in different directions; how we have learned better than to bring a handbag
that also needs minding (lest we allow the Gucci or Goyard to divert our
watchful eyes from their primary focal point, the children). All this
discussion around how much we’ve learned when abruptly a twin disappeared. She
had been on the large play structure, until she was not. Her mother was calm,
until she was not. Five seconds passed and the mother asked me to stay with her
son because she couldn’t see her daughter. She darted in one direction and then
another. I screamed her daughter’s name out loud. Two other mothers in the park
spanned out to look for a little girl with tiny braids and a shirt of I don’t
remember what color. The further the mother ran in one direction the more I
trained my eyes in the opposite direction. Until slowly, like a timid deer
hesitating at a sunny clearing in the forest, I could see the little girl
emerge from the bushes near the church and clamber back to the play structure
where she had last been seen. Obviously I will try not to get lost in deep
conversation while minding my children in a large, open public space.
I don’t know what are supposed to be the lessons here from these
ironic incidents on important parenting days but something is being received;
they do seem to make me a better parent; or at least a more experienced
parent... or maybe I am just paying heightened attention on these days... One
thing I know is that the terror, then relief, then embarrassment that follows
these incidents are feelings only good parents experience; and are only one
fraction of one reason why the good people of old created a day for mothers and
fathers; to recognize and respect the daily toils of parenting.
To that I say thanks for the recognition and a big loving thanks
to all the diaper-bag-toting; Baby-Bjorn-wearing; sacrificing; juggling;
doting; playful dads out there – Happy
Father's Day!
- Two Father’s Day blog articles I definitely enjoyed:
- For an interesting history of Father's Day, read on from here:
Father's Day is a celebration of fathers inaugurated in the United
States in the early twentieth century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating
fatherhood and male parenting.
Father's Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at
the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was
born in Arkansas.[3] Its
first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910.[3][4] Her
father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson
Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father's_Day)
No comments:
Post a Comment