I love insurance. For real. I like knowing that whenever I
get sick and have to see a doctor, I'm not going to have to sell everything I
own just to pay bills like Denzel Washington in 'John Q'. Same thing goes for
my car and home insurance. If for any reason either of the two are destroyed, I
wouldn't end up completely up a creek. I would at least be able to afford a
1982 Ford Pinto or something of the sort. And no, I cannot confirm the
existence of the Pinto nameplate in 1982 off the top of my head.
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| Apparently one can use a Ford Pinto as a firestarter when necessary. |
Also of note is the beauty that is dental insurance. As in
the dental insurance I used today to pay for my six-month checkup. Boom, that's
a transition right there! To tell the truth, I'd been slightly worried about
this checkup for quite a while. Not because I had a cavity or anything (because
my teeth are structurally perfect despite not being perfectly straight).
Instead, I was worried because I knew that I'd be leaving Ellie with a
babysitter for a few hours.
I should lead with the fact that I was not concerned for
Ellie because of who I was leaving her with. I left her with a friend, Emily,
who lives just a few streets away so I knew Ellie would be fine. However, I was
more filled with concern for poor Emily because I know how Ellie can be a
complete handful to deal with at times. Seriously, she's kind of like a real-life Jack-Jack from 'The Incredibles'.
With my appointment scheduled for 10 am, I knew I needed to
have Ellie dropped off with Emily around 9:30 to give myself plenty of time to
get to the office. As I handed Ellie over to Emily, I knew she'd be fine.
However, I still found myself giving a completely unnecessary laundry list of
instructions to a woman who has successfully raised two children of her own.
Finally, Emily reassured me that everything would be just fine and that if
Ellie got upset, she'd be able to deal with it. With that, I backed out of the
driveway and headed to the dentist office.
Honestly, I forget sometimes just how easy it used to be for
to pick up and do things pre-Ellie. By this I mean, once my cleaning was done,
I took advantage of the time away from my daughter to get some errands done.
Ironically, those errands involved purchasing some needed items for Ellie at
Target but such is the life of a father. After finishing up at Target, I then
headed to the bank to deposit a pair of checks before it was time to pick up
Ellie. Somewhat sadly for me, I was unable to deposit my checks as I spent ten
minutes standing in line behind the couple applying for a car loan at a
super-market bank location before I finally decided to leave.
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| I would have had more patience with the dog... |
I then headed to Emily's to retrieve Ellie just as I had
promised. Honestly, I half-expected to hear that Ellie had screamed for two
hours straight as I walked up to the front door. Imagine my surprise when Emily
answered the door with a smiling Ellie in her arms and nothing but good things
to say. Apparently Ellie had only had a few 10-second meltdowns but was
otherwise good. She had spent some time exploring and watching the older kids
play Xbox Kinect. In fact, I knew things must have gone really well when I saw
Ellie reaching out for Emily as we were leaving.
Honestly, I couldn't be more proud of Ellie for being really
good over those two hours. It's easy as a parent to expect the worst regarding
your child. Especially if your child has earned her reputation of being
difficult. Instead, seeing that Ellie did well gave me an incredible peace of
mind. You know, kind of like the same peace of mind my insurance gives me?
It's just nice to know as a stay-at-home parent that there
are plenty of people who I can leave my daughter with for a couple of hours as
necessary. Now I just need to get over my weird pride and actually ask those
people for help when necessary. Oh, who am I kidding? That's easier said than
done for me. #DaddyWrite
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