Dad's the word!

With father’s day today, it’s time to show our gratitude to the daddies in our lives!  Of course, we all have our dads to thank, but what about the father of our little ones? So until our little ones are old enough to churn out something on their own, it’s upon us mommies to ensure that the daddies get their due on Father’s day just as we bask in our status as a mother on Mother’s day! I am not a great fan this hallmark sponsored day, but I see no harm in taking some time off to acknowledge the role our partners play in parenting…… if not at least for a day!  Fathers are now more actively involved in their children’s lives than their predecessors….and why not? Daddies are always the favorite, no matter what you do and so it’s time they get their hands dirty too! J I am greatly dependent on my husband without whom I’d find it hard to handle even some of daily routine activities revolving around Abhay!  So whether it’s getting my tardy six year old ready for school in the morning (while sharing a man-to-man time with him!) or initiating the bed-time protocol at night (and dozing off  in the meantime!) or waking up the middle of the night when Abhay ambles over to our room (a regular phenomenon!) or  taking him to an event or an activity on a Saturday morning (as Saturdays are working for me!) or  playing the “Good cop” when as always I am the “Bad cop” while disciplining my errant little one or when I am need of some kind of reassurance that we are doing the right thing as parents….dad’s the word!

So today I had Abhay and his dad read together “Interrupting Chicken” by David Ezra Stein, a book that won the famed Caldecott Honor for the year 2011. I had this one shipped from the US through a friend sometime ago, but never had the opportunity to feature the same on Onestoryaday. The reason I chose to do so on father’s day is because I found there was a striking resemblance between how the papa-chicken and baby-chicken cuddle up in bed and how Abhay holds on to his dad  at bedtime! This is a father-child story that definitely makes a wonderful read on father’s day! It was bed time for the little red chicken and her papa is all set to read her a story but with a condition that the little one should not interrupt the story in between as she usually does to which little chicken promises to be good and not interrupt the story. And so starts papa chicken with the story of “Hansel and Gretel” who both being extremely hungry are thrilled to find a house made of candy and begin to eat up the goodies when the witch pretending to be an old woman invites them in. Just as they are about to enter the danger zone, the little red chicken jumps in interrupting the story telling Hansel and Gratel not to go in as the woman was a witch. So Hansel and Gratel did not go in and the story ended quickly. Papa chicken reminded the little red chicken of her promise not to interrupt and started to read “Little Red Riding Hood”. But the story of Red Riding Hood too met a similar end with the warning Little Red Riding Hood about not talking to strangers just as she was about to talk to the wolf! Thus the incorrigible red can’t control herself and jumps in every time the story reaches a turning point! Finally Papa chicken has had it and closes the book when little pleads with him for another story without which she cannot fall asleep. Papa then asks her to tell him a story instead. As the little chicken starts off with her story “Once upon a time…there was a little red chicken who put her papa to bed…”, her papa is fast asleep and it doesn’t take long for the little chicken to jump right in next to her dearest papa! Abhay of course enjoyed the rendition of this story by his own papa! Happy father’s day to all the dads!