Families Should be Fun
Kori is always looking for that next thing to help us connect and give us new stuff to talk about. She is great with coming up with new ideas and then asking me what I think about them. Well, my response isn’t always supportive as I am one who loves to live in my comfort zone and just do what I do. You know those people, the ones that don’t want to “rock the boat” or try new things. That’s me. Kori is just the opposite and she is always looking for new experiences and “opportunities to learn.” I guess that is what makes us a great pair, the ying and the yang.
Recently, she texted me and asked me to listen to this new podcast that she liked and then we could talk about it. As soon as she says she wants to talk about something, my radar immediately goes up because talking about our relationship is the last thing I want to do. I have learned though over the years, that the ideas that Kori comes up with are usually good ones and now I give her the benefit of the doubt…sometimes, and this was one of those times. The first couple podcasts had to do with having an awesome marriage and I am sure we will be “discussing” those in the future so I am gonna skip over those for now and talk about today’s podcast. Today the message was having an awesome family and since I think we have a pretty good one, I thought I would share some observations.
There were two things said in the podcast that really stuck with me and here they are: “Families should be playful and fun” and “People don’t remember what you say to them but they will remember how you made them feel. Those are two powerful messages and I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about the first one.
For those who don’t know, I have been a stay at home dad for about 21 years. I started when Number 1 was 18 months old. Now Number 4 is almost 17. I was determined to make sure my kids had lots of fun growing up with their dad at home. The house cleaning, cooking and some times the laundry suffered because of our fun but the way I looked at it, the dust isn’t as important as my kids. We played countless games, had afternoon dance parties, played “Tackle Dad,” a game I made up but the object of the game is self-explanatory. We spent our summers outdoors exploring new parks, going to the zoo or hanging out with other dads and their kids. When it was dinnertime, I was no longer dad, I was “Chef Pierre.” Although the accent sucked, the kids didn’t care. I tried to entertain them, make them laugh and help the time pass as I prepared their favorite dinners. The end of the night could sometimes be tricky but the kids at least knew if they got ready for bed when I asked them to, they would get me to read them a book in bed and give them their own snuggle time.
According to my wife, fun was never an issue for me and for the basis of this blog, I will only consider that to be a positive. Growing up, I had my share of fun with my parents but there were also a lot of not so fun times too. I don’t blame my parents, they did the best they could to provide for me and raise me in a loving home. I was determined when I was a dad, I was going to be all about the fun and would spend as much time as I could with them. I am thankful that I have a career driven wife who was happy to have me stay home and take care of the kids my way. It took her awhile to get on board with me never seeing or caring about dust but I think she finally gave up that battle and just took it out on me during our nightly “Tackle Dad” game.
