DATE
- 12.12.16
Hello DadLife’ers. I stumbled onto something last night with my daughter and thought it might help. It’s one of those “aha” moments that I wish I had been doing for a long time but nevertheless, I’m glad I found out when I did.
My family tends to do everything TOGETHER. We’re just tight like that. We eat together, go to the movies together, play games together…you get the point. It’s just how we are and we like it that way.
However, last night my son was at his cousin’s house and I was hanging out with my daughter McKenzie. We had decided that we needed to get out of the house so that my wife and some of her friends could have a little “girls night out” Christmas party. Honestly, I was exhausted and didn’t really know what to do. After the normal 5-10 minutes of back and forth with my daughter of “what do you want to do…I don’t know what do YOU want to do” she finally said “Let’s go play some games at Dave and Busters”.https://youtu.be/mKsOdE-a1Vk
I reluctantly said OK and off we went. From that decision, that’s where the magic happened. My daughter could not have been more of a “Daddy’s girl” from the moment we got into the car til the moment we got home. That may not sound like much but from an 11 year old who is starting to get into that independent I don’t need Mommy/Daddy stage it meant the world to me. We laughed, played games, did silly dances and just had fun. From one game to the next it was, “oh Dad, let’s play this”…”this will be fun” and most importantly I received at least 3 “Thank you so much Dad for this” before the night ended.
My most important take away was that she loved the fact that she didn’t have to share me with her little brother. I was all hers and she was all mine. It totally made sense. We were able to just have small talk in the car and as you can see in the video I’m posting below she was totally into my sing-a-long (#NotReally).
If you have more than one child and you’re able, try setting some time to be with them all by themselves. I believe you’ll find it so benefitting to you both. Being an intentional parent is hard work but trust me it’s so worth it!
I’m curious to see what lessons like this you’ve accidentally discovered? Leave us a comment…we’d love to hear back from you!
This is the #DadLife!
– Marc