Why do you torment me?

After rasing two boys, I naively believed that I was prepared to raise a girl.  After all, although there are differences, kids are kids, right?  There was a certain amount of healthy fear and respect that the boys had for me which, when necessary, could be leveraged to my advantage in an effort to maintain control in our household.  After my daughter was born, I solemnly vowed to treat her and raise her in the same way as the boys.  That lasted until she was about 4 years old.  After getting in trouble for some minor offence, she was dismissed to her bedroom to cool off.  My parental lecture continued as she walked up the stairs to her room, when she suddenly stopped on the stairs and put her hands on her hips.  She looked at me and said, "Daddy, I'm almost in tears" as a warning to me that I had better watch myself before the floodworks began.  I was speechless... She then continued calmly to her bedroom.

While driving home after picking my daughter up from school, she read a community sign indicating that a sock-hop was taking place friday evening for grades 4-6.  She asked me what as sock hop was and when I indicated that it was a dance, her eyes lit up for about 30 seconds until she realized that she was only in grade 3.  She then looked up and raised her hands in the air in futility, saying "Why do you torment me?".... she was 8....

Stethescopes

Walking with Vicki back from the store tonight there was a bright star and she asked me if she could take out the stethescope so she could look closer at it.  It reminded me about all of the things that the kids have said like this over the years.  I wish blogs were around earlier.  I'm hoping to reach back and remember some of the things the kids have said over the years and include them here. 

One thing comes to mind right now.  I played a part in a commercial for Peter Pan restaurant where I played the part of Peter Pan.  I walked into Dan's daycare where the kids were discussing what their parents did for a living just in time to hear Dan exclaim to his friends "My dad is Peter Pan!"  A quick side note to this story.  A week later when I was performing Shakespeare, I dropped Dan off at Daycare and he quickly hopped up on to a table and declared loudly "To be or not to be, that is the question".  His teacher looked at him and asked "What's that?" to which Dan replied, "That's Shakespeare!"

More stories to come....