The "Daddy" factor!

 Robert Frost once said that a father is always a republican towards his son and his mother is always a democrat! I’m not sure of the context in which these words were spoken but it sure seems relevant, considering the recent presidential debate between President Obama and the republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (which has us nostalgic of Obama’s win back in 2008 when we were in the US). Anyway, my point being that fathers tend to be more laissez faire than mothers making them the favorite with kids…..my household being no exception. Between the two of us, I find myself being the over-enthusiastic (occasionally breathing-down-the-neck types) over-protective and over-reactive parent! (I seriously can’t help it!) My husband gets away with being his usual nonchalant self and ends up doing a better job than me, at the least in the eyes of our son! It feels like we moms do all the research and ground work whereas dads just present the thesis! They can’t deny that it is we moms who make the dads look good! For instance, it was I who had noticed that Abhay needed a new pencil box and asked his dad to drive him to a nearby toy store on the pretext of getting the training wheels of his cycle fixed and surprise him with the new buy! Well…. He did as he was told and became the “best dad in the whole world”! Hello!…. who’s idea was it? So from next time on….I’m implementing my ideas myself!

In fact, I even pick the appropriate books for the father-son duo and one such book Abhay loved is “My Dad” by Anthony Browne, awarded the Children’s Laureate for the year 2009. In fact, this one is normally read by Abhay’s dad but last night I decided to step into the daddy’s shoes for one last time before I return it back to the library. All about hero-worship of the daddy, this book starts with a  little boy introducing his dad as he says “He’s all right, my dad”! Then he starts off describing how his dad isn’t afraid of anything, even the big bad wolf and that he can jump right over the moon, and walk on a tightrope! (Now this is a little over the top…don’t you thinkJ ) He likens his dad’s appetite to a horse (I agree with this one!), his strength to a gorilla, his state of mind to a happy hippo and then comes the daddy’s physical attributes and extraordinary talents with his dad being a wise as an owl (the illustration showing the  daddy literally transforming into an owl) and of course like most dads, his dad too makes him laugh a lot( making funny faces) Finally, he concludes that he loves his dad and he is thrilled to know that his daddy loves him too and will always do! Well, Abhay’s daddy always gets a big hug at the end of the book...…so can I get one too??:-)