I’ve Had My Day
SHERWOOD KIRALY
This Sunday might be fine. Might be nice. Might be sunny.
But it won’t be like last Sunday. I was somebody then.
Last weekend I got preferential treatment and of course I had it
coming, because I’m a father and that’s all you have to be on
Father’s Day. There were moments during the day when I doubted I’d
done enough to deserve such treatment, but then I would reflect that
it wasn’t World’s Best Father’s Day, or Most Consistently Nurturing
Father’s Day; it was just Father’s Day, and I qualified.
I won’t go into the back story on how I came to qualify, but as
regards my parenting style I will state that, in addition to studying
my own dad, I took my role models from television, particularly Rob
Petrie of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and Lucas McCain, “The Rifleman.”
Rob used to fall down and Lucas had a tendency to shoot his way out
of trouble, but aside from that they were reasonable and responsible,
qualities I’ve always found admirable, if elusive.
Most fathers, I suspect, aren’t all that sure how good at it they
are.
Physically, we start out as giants and get shorter every year. We
start two of every three sentences with “Don’t.” We greet our
daughter’s male friends without warmth. We don’t want to get up and
play as often as we should.
We give our children advice based on years of experience -- advice
handed down and ignored from generation to generation. As an
experiment, I asked Katie the other day if she could remember
anything I’d ever said to her. It was watching her really try that
got me down.
We know the mothers do more to raise the children than we do, and
we suspect the children do more, as well.
On the plus side, we carry. We drop off and pick up. We applaud.
We invent games involving double takes and anthropomorphic dialogue.
We sit in the passenger seat and say, “That was good, but you’re
shaving the parked cars a little close.” We read aloud. We volley for
serve.
None of it’s terribly impressive -- there’s a reason Mother’s Day
comes first -- but we’re in there trying, ready and willing to
shoulder about 37% of the burden.
My family treated me awfully well on Sunday. I got to go to the
races. When I got home I got two entrees, a phone call from my son
and a card-with-custom-made”sappy”-poem from my daughter. I got some
books, too. And if I didn’t deserve all of it, well, I was lucky at
the races, too.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.