When I decided to quit working and became a stay-at-home
dad, I knew I was joining a crowd of a select few. It's super common for one to
see stay-at-home moms. Seriously, check out your local grocery store or library
whenever you have a day off work. However, stay-at-home dads tend to be more of
a rare breed. In fact, I feel like I've been able to go weeks at a time without
seeing another S.A.H.D. in the wild. Occasionally though, I encounter those
moments that remind me I'm not alone.
I'll set the scene. It's Thursday and Ellie and I are ready
to take in story time at Woodneath Library. As we had arrived at the library a
few minutes early, I decided to treat us to something special from the on-site
coffee shop: a strawberry-banana smoothie.
 |
| I want this right now. |
Now, I don't know if
I speak for all dads when I say this or not, but I like to spoil my little girl
and occasional treats like this are one of my favorite ways to do so. Of
course, part of spoiling Ellie is wanting to keep it just between the two of us.
Therefore, I always make certain to remind her not to tell Mommy even though I
know Bethany wouldn't care.
Once our smoothie was in hand, Ellie and I headed to the
story time room and took a seat. There we sat and read books together,
alternating sips of our smoothie until the festivities finally begun. While
these events are largely attended by women, imagine my surprise when I saw a
dad with his preschool-aged daughter wander in and take a seat. Of course, as
men are prone to do in these situations, rather than engage in conversation, we
instead acknowledged each other's presence with a simple head nod and returned
our attention to our respective child.
Approximately an hour later, story time had come and gone,
the smoothie was long gone, and Ellie was the proud borrower of five new
library books. Therefore, it was time to head to our next stop, Sam's Club. While
our shopping list wasn't large by any means, it did include two specific things
for Ellie: a new set of pajamas and a massive bucket of animal crackers.
When it came time for Ellie to pick out her new pajamas, I
must admit that disappointment reigned supreme. Even though I made a hard push
for her to choose space cat-themed pajamas (you read that right), she instead
settled for pink and purple donut-themed pajamas. Like a good dad though, I
begrudgingly placed them in the cart and moved on.
 |
| Oh, what could have been... |
As we traversed aisle after aisle, we suddenly encountered
an unexpected surprise. There in the milk aisle was the same father/daughter
combo we had seen at story time. Even though this meeting wouldn't be any more
eventful than our last, there was at least a second head nod accompanied by a
"Hey, it's you!". With that, it was time to head home to see Bethany
and Ethan.
Oh, I guess I should mention here that Ellie is the biggest
tattletale that ever lived. Within five minutes of being home, she had blabbed
all about the smoothie to Bethany. I still can't believe she sold me out!
#DaddyWrite
(Wife edit: Really you sold yourself out.
Lol. I tried to tell her you don’t buy smoothies at the library. Little
did I know her response of “you have never been to this library" was so
true.)
No comments:
Post a Comment