Being a dad is a wonderful thing. My kids are now all three between the ages of 10 and 14. That makes me feel old, which I sometimes confuse with wise. As I get further along in this journey I’m beginning to realize that there is a progression that we go through. Here is the evolution of dads.
- You want to be cool (somewhere around the age of 12)
- You think you’re cool (at some point in high school or college)
- Your kids think you’re cool (at about the age of 3)
- Your kids realize you’re not cool (I’m not really sure when they figured this out)
- You realize you’re not cool (I’m guessing this varies from person to person)
- You no longer care that you’re not cool
- You realize that being cool wasn’t the point (I’m assuming this the next step based on feedback from others)
What do you think? Some of you that are further along this journey feel free to add to or correct this list.
Well, first of all, I’m a mom. Second, my kid falls in the same range as you, but so far, it’s spot on. 🙂
So does this progression applies to moms too? 🙂
Forget parenthood. Be an uncle.
Uncles are always cool. 🙂
Good point, Duane. Although I suspect that my niece and nephew think of me more as crazy than cool. 🙂
The cool phases are awful. It’s all suppression of legitimate emotion in favor of what very few others actually want. But even a kid wanting to be cool is easier on a dad than his kid wanting to be hot.
I totally agree, on both points. 🙂
I never tried to be cool, or particularly wanted to be. But I think there’s a kind of state change that happens somewhere between the kids’ age 12-14: they go from “my Dad is teh AWEsum!” to “geez, what a dork.” Overnight.
The daughter-units will tolerate you longer if you don’t freak out when they start doing woman kind of things. (You can still veto a too-revealing outfit without causing a permanent rift, just be calm about it. But you have to lay the groundwork before that moment.)
Thanks for the heads up, FAR! 🙂