Dads Know the Best Games!

By

Gerry Niskern

I passed a scene the other day that  “warmed the cockles of my heart”. At a city bus stop a young father and mother danced, laughing around their baby’s stroller,   “flipping” each other with one of the infant’s blankets. The baby was standing in the stroller waving his arms and giggling at the antics of his parents. I’d say that daddy had a sense of fun, something dads need in abundance.

We all know that some dads make lots of money, while other dads are worth more then they earn. Smart dads learn to make their own fun with their children.

In the summer my dad helped us make kites out of newspapers. He put a message on the string and the wind carried it up out of sight. We believed him when he told us we were sending secret messages to the heavens. He took us hiking in the woods and in winter, we careened down icy hills on a sled, clinging to his back.

My cousin’s dad could always be counted on to pull his big, black Oldsmobile up to the curb and call to us kids, “Come on, let’s go get an ice cream cone.” Another cousin’s daddy teased us unmercifully, but I think we loved him best.

Our sons remember playing “submarine” with their dad every summer. They clung to his back while he swam underwater the entire length of the pool. Each year they tried to beat their record of trying to stay with their personal submarine the whole way. One toddler, in turn, taught daddy patience when he “played” donuts on his dad’s pricey record player.

The little girl in our family had tea parties with her daddy, but the tea was hot chocolate. For some reason, he felt it was important to teach her chocolate was one of the five food groups.

One young mother in our family laments the condition of her house when she comes home from shopping and daddy has been in charge. Pictures are tilted on the walls, lampshades are askew and pillows are everywhere. Nobody seems to know what happened, but she can pretty much guess there was a ball involved and daddy invented the game. He also started the game of  “get me” when someone needs to be dressed after bath time or a diaper needs changed. The child gets to chase through the house evading dad as long as possible.

Today’s fathers are lucky. The women’s movement in this country over the past forty years has helped young mothers realize they don’t have to do it all. Dads are no longer assigned the lone role of disciplinarian as the majority was in days past. Fathers share the hands-on job of raising the children. Instructors in parenting classes find that most fathers excel in the “burrito wrap”.  Most dads can fold, wrap and snug a receiving blanket around a newborn better than mom does. They get to feed, dress and share all the activities of their kids.

I see mothers trotting behind jogging strollers along the walking path every morning. Babies are usually sleeping out of sheer boredom. On weekends, it’s a different story. When Dad’s in charge, they’re flying down the path, blankets flapping and bare feet waving in the breeze.

I think the baby belonging to the young couple at the bus stop will remember the good times when he grows up, because after all,

Mothers might know best, but dads sure are fun!