How To Make A Father Proud
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November 28th, 2006
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On Friday I got a surprise that I won't easily forget. It almost brought tears to my eyes. If you read the previous post you'll see that I spent half Thursday and Friday at Daniel's school. Friday afternoon, just as I was getting ready to leave the school with Daniel, one of the teachers came up to me. She told me she had a gift on behalf of the 8 teachers that work with Daniel and the other kids. I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a thank you for all the support and work I've been doing with Daniel and the school. What? The teachers are giving me flowers? Is this a joke? I must have had a really funny expression on my face as I hesitantly but proudly accepted the flowers. It was funny that my father was there to see this since my parents have lots of views of how me and the wife approach parenting. Most of them not favorable.The first thing I told the teachers was that I should be the one buying them flowers. They do a fabulous job at school with the kids. It's damn hard work being a day-care teacher. It's tough to constantly be around small kids and the teachers must be very patient and understanding while still maintaining a firm profile. We've now been at the school for a bit over one year and have a very positive view over how things are handled.
I try to stay involved even though my work hours sadly make it difficult to leave and pick up Daniel. I'm on the parent council, go to every teacher/parent meeting, and do pay attention at what goes on at school. A couple of times a semester I also speak in front of 50 new parents at the school to give them a parental view of what they can expect when they sometimes nervously drop their little loved one of to start day care.
During my visits at school I mainly look at how Daniel is behaving and how he acts with other kids. I usually end of playing mostly with other children. There must be something different about me. Perhaps I smell strange, look weird, or sound funny but the kids flock around me. The want me to play with them, ride on my shoulders, and constantly bring me toys. It's always been like that. Kids feel oddly at ease around me, even kids I've never seen before. Daniel is doing fine at school and behaves very well. He's now going though a phase where he wants to do more things himself and his will and temper is getting stronger. But so far he's one of just a few kids who always have a smile on his face which makes life easier.
I don't expect any gifts to be a good and involved father. I do it because I like it, I love my son, and it's the right thing to do. But I did feel very honored by this small gesture by the teachers and was not far from shedding a tear or two.
Wow - you got flowers — that’s amazing… you should put up a picture of the flowers. Seriously parents and teachers alike deserve flowers… for all the amazing work they do. That reminds me must get some cookies of sorts for Erik’s day care teachers.
Please forgive my snarkiness, and do not allow it to take away from your momment. But…
I think it is a statement towards the pathetic level of attention far too many parents give to their kids and their surroundings, that “just being” a caring, loving, involved parents garners this kind of respect and appreciation from the teachers.
I am not trying to take anything away from you and your wife of course, I just feel that in an ideal world (yeah, yeah I know…) this should be commonplace, and not noteworthy.
Kudos for you and the Mrs for being awesome parents!
I’ve never heard of flowers being given to a parent (or a dad!)
Maybe you’ve started something here…
Bravo to you for being so involved with your son’s school. And good for those teachers for recognizing your hard work and commitment.
Not only is what you are doing good for your son and for the others kids in the class (as well as giving teachers a positive model for what fathers can really be), but many studies have shown, fathers who are involved with their children’s school are significantly more likely to have children who excel in school…for the rest of their lives.
Good for you. You are obviously a great role model.
Dec 11th, 2006 at 11:06 am
[…] Posted on Sunday 10 December 2006 MWK - Daddy and the kids in town. Alone. Canon Powershot SD500, ISO 50 A couple of weeks ago I came up with the phrase MWK (Mother Without Kids) which is something we're working hard on achieving. No, we're not trying to kill our children, just give wife more space without them. I'm a strong believer in personal time away from the kids for both mother and father. In my opinion, it's the most common and disastrous mistake parents make after having kids. They cease to live and everything circle around the children. I think I'm a dedicated and involved father. I can't be doing too badly since the teachers at school give me flowers, but I need time alone from wife and kids. So does my wife. Having kids is very tough, and a newborn is an even more difficult challenge for a mother. An infant is so demanding and the breastfeeding makes a mother tied down day a and night. So I'm trying to step up more and take the kids out for small excursions now when Annika is not acting like an angry bitch any longer less difficult to handle. The past couple of weeks have been great. I don't know what's going on but I have had so much energy. Perhaps it's because we're having more sex? Work has been great, I've been working out hard 5 times a week, and also spent tons of time with the kids and been helping out more than usual at home (wife probably disagrees…..) Since I work during the week I kidnap the kids mostly during the weekends. The only drawback is that my timing has to be perfect. I need to leave right after Annika eats since she needs to breastfeed every 3-5 hours during the day. My friends always practice damage control when they have the kids for a few hours. The lock the doors and let the DVD player do the work. Not me. I do excursions. Annika in the Baby Björn, Daniel on my shoulders, and the Mountain Buggy Urban Double loaded with stuff and also as a backup when the kids need to sleep. Then we head out. Last weekend we rode the subway and bus for a while and then hung out for a few hours at the train station (Daniel loves trains!). We also checked out the beautiful Christmas decorations in some nice shops. I tell you, the MBUD is unbelievable. I can manover this carriage easily with one hand despite having one child on my shoulders and one in the Baby Björn. This weekend I took the kids for a very important task, the monthly wine and beer shopping. If you want people to look funny at you, take your kids for this little adventure. It's a good judge over what you can do with your kids. Imagine being in a place filled with nothing but expensive bottles and walk around there with a 3-year old full of energy. You will soon find out if you raised your kids well. Me, the kids, the MBUD, and a full cart of alcohol apparently doesn't make a nice impression of people. By the looks you might think I just escaped from prison and raped some women. My son is son too funny since he kept repeating " Daddy buys LOTS of Beer!" in a loud voice for everyone to hear. Priceless. Buying 50 bottles of wine and a few cases of beer went well and we had a blast. What has mommy been doing during her MWK time? Shopping, workouts at the gym, running, and this weekend I sent her to a massage. We've got a new Thai massage place close to our place and I know how much Sandra loves this kind of massage after her trips to Thailand. I have a feeling we'll be visiting this place often since wife immediately mentioned this great deal of getting the tenth visit for free……. But the main thing is that she clears her head and recharges. She's doing great and feels so much better after being able to work out. After gaining 40 lbs. during the pregnancy she's now only got 5 lbs left and can wear all her clothes. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Taking the kids out for excursions around town alone is hard work but I love it. It gives me this awesome feeling to manage everything successfully and arriving back home with the kids smiling. The toughest thing has been my son and his habit of wanting to ride on my shoulders. Carrying a 17 lbs. baby in the Baby Björn for hours is fine. But doing that AND carrying a 35 lbs. toddler on my shoulders while pushing the Mountain Buggy Urban Double around town for a day is exhausting even though I'm super fit. Soon I'll need a vacation. Without the kids………. Have a great week ahead! […]
May 16th, 2007 at 6:47 am
[…] has been happy with Daniel and us was of course highlighted a couple of weeks ago when they gave ME flowers while I was spending one of my days at school with my son. It was soemthing i accepted very […]