Kaylin, Maks, and me
I wrote this for “The Mom and Caregiver” magazine this month, and thought that it would be fun to post it to my site as a Father’s Day tribute.
A father’s role has changed a ton in the past several decades. The rise of feminism has resulted in some pretty great things, like a much larger role in the lives of our children. When I was born it was still something of an anomaly for a father to be in the room at the birth of their child. Today it’s commonplace—the births of my two children are two of the greatest moments of my life.
I’m the proud dad of two amazing children. Our daughter Kaylin is almost four, precocious, whip-smart, artistic, caring and fearless. Maks is seven months and already at this young age we know that he’s hilarious, easy-going and determined.
Having kids is a ton of fun. My favourite moments are what I call “light bulb moments,” when my children put two and two together and do something for the first time. It’s Maks taking his first tentative crawl, it’s Kaylin at the kitchen table drawing a picture of me.
Kids let you be a kid again. Sometimes it’s fun to plunk down and play with the Little People or have some pretend tea. You get to watch cartoons (okay, you HAVE to watch cartoons), you have a built-in excuse to go see the new Pixaf flick, and you get to look at stuff in a new light.
I love sharing new experiences with my kids—showing Maks his first butterfly, or taking Kaylin to a local comic book store for Free Comic Book Day. I love the fact that my little girl enjoys her comics as much as I enjoy mine. And their looks of wonder are awesome. Walking into a movie theatre with Kaylin for the first time and watching the look on her face when she saw a two-storey TV was pretty much priceless.
Being a dad means having a whole new audience for my jokes, especially the ones that elicit eye rolls from my wife but get guffaws of hilarious laughter from my daughter. It’s even better when she repeats that same tired old joke back to her mom days later, which usually results in my wife telling me, “She is her
father’s daughter.”
I love reading stories to them. For me a story isn’t really good unless I can play all of the parts and do a few different voices. Green Eggs and Ham done with a Boris Karloff impression is so much better than a straight read, both for me, and for the kids. When my comics arrive and Kaylin asks me to read her favourite,
Tiny Titans, my day—no matter how crummy before that moment—is pretty much made.
Being a dad is about Sunday morning breakfast, making pancakes together with my little girl. It’s about swinging on swings, riding bikes, running through the park, and knowing enough to let her fall so that she learns how to pull herself back up…but being close enough at hand that I can help her out of a jam when
she gets in over her head.
What’s so great about being a dad? It’s the promise of tomorrow and knowing that you’re shaping the future one precious memory at a time.