 |
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Is It Any Wonder Kids Love Their Dads? |
|
|
|
© 2003 - 2006 Carole Moore |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
Mom: Where's your coat? Kid: In my room. Mom: Put it on. It's cold outside. Kid: It's not that cold, Mom. Mom: It's 10 degrees with a wind chill of –20. Wear the coat. Kid: Aw, Mom. (Puts on coat.) Now, contrast this with Dad's version of the same conversation. Dad: Where's your coat? Kid: In my room. Dad: Your mom said to wear it. Kid: It's not that cold, Dad. Dad (walks outside, sees his breath, his lips turn blue and his car windows are covered with heavy frost): OK. Get in the car. See? Dads take their kids' words for things even when the preponderance of the evidence is against them. Moms don't fall for that gambit. We know "It's not that cold" means it's the coldest day in recorded history. "It's not that cold" means squirrels are frozen solid to tree limbs. "It's not that cold" means one's nasal hair will soon sport ice. But dads will stand there, surrounded by frozen squirrels, the ice in their nasal hair cracking and falling onto their shoes and believe their kid when he says he doesn't need a coat. All throughout recorded history dads have taken their children at their word, while moms know better. Don't believe me? Go to a fast-food restaurant any Saturday morning and look at the kids. There will be two types: Kids whose hair is combed and are wearing decent, weather-appropriate clothing and kids whose hair is sticking up all over their heads and are wearing flip flops in the dead of winter or snow boots in summer. The first group of kids were assisted in dressing by their moms. The second were assisted by their dads. And when dad gets ready to drive to McDonald's for breakfast and the kid is standing there in a bathing suit top, the bottom half of her Barney pajamas and a pair of three-sizes too small tennis shoes with a hole in the toe, and he asks: "Shouldn't you put on something else? It's cold outside." The kid will reply: "Mom lets me wear this all the time." And the dad will figure it's OK because a six-year-old told him it was. A mom wouldn't buy that. A mom would say, "I don't care. You're not going anywhere looking like that. Go back upstairs and put on something decent." But what do dads do? They shrug and say, "OK. Go get into the car." And then the dads drive their children, who all looked as though they dressed in the dark while standing in a Dumpster to the nearest fast food place and go inside to eat breakfast and all the moms in there look those kids and roll their eyes at one another. And that's why the kid two tables over at breakfast on Saturday morning looks like he's getting ready to go scuba diving when it's 30 degrees outside. |
