Ah, Fatherhood x 3

A long time ago I never figured myself to be a father. Now I have three kids and I wonder where I went wrong.

No, actually i couldn't be happier. It's not without stress and a lot of work but I wouldn't have it any other way. I used to love thinking about doing things with a son and how I'd teach him to do this or that and impart my experience to him so he would learn and not get hurt.

I thought about having a daughter and when she goes on her first date. How would I react? What would I say? Do I scare the crap out of her date and embarrass the hell out of her?

Just a lot of things I've thought about and now more things are popping in my head.

Seemingly every time we go somewhere someone asks our son if he's playing sports of any kind. "No," is the response. At times we get a quizzical look like saying, "you're kidding? No sports???" He doesn't want to and I'm not going to push him. If he wants to try something then he will. He's a normal boy with normal likes and dislikes but I want him to do some things for himself. I'm not going to push him in to things like that. if he wants to he'll tell us. We do push him a little but not to the point of forcing him to do things. I guess those things are just out of his normal comfort zone.

Now the girls, on the other hand, are all ready to begin playing soccer. Not that either of them know what it is, but they want to do it. They like running and kicking balls so they'll have fun if it's what they want to do.

What I feel really bad about is our son not playing as much as he should. He "likes" working. He says he'd rather work because it's fun. I know I didn't have the best work ethic growing up and was constantly being told to do this, do that, finish this. I was bad about not completing things, as he is today. Trust me, he gets constantly reminded about "half-assing" tasks. He stops what he's doing and finishes the prior job correctly. He likes to help and does a great job when he wants to. But I worry he doesn't play enough. We try to spend one-on-one time with him doing things he wants to do because we understand a lot of that time that should be for him is catering to the whims and cries and screams of two little sisters.

I like giving him a day off from school. I like the little sheepish grin I see when he comes walking down the hall to meet me. "Daddy, why are you here? We going somewhere?" And then I tell him I just thought he might like an afternoon off to go home and play, have a shake, watch TV or do other things to get a break. The grin on his face is worth it, every single time. He's happy and I love to see him smile.

All of our kids have terrific smiles. They all have their fake smiles and then the ones that are heart-warming, letting someone know they truly are happy.

Our son gets embarrassed easily so we try to not do that unless we're making a point. The girls? Gee whiz, they don't care. The only thing they get upset about is being tickled, told they can't have something they want, or to go to bed by themselves. Sound like a normal girl? It's a constant battle but eventually things will mellow out.

So as the summer begins and one's out of school, the other looks forward to pre-school while the last of the brood waits her turn to begin reading books, learning colors and shapes, and reciting the ABCs. So for now we'll continue playing outside in the little pool we have, eating popsicles, watching one of the many kittens we have in the barn, and enjoying each other's idiosyncrasies as we grow old, all together as a family.