Yesterday, Sid and I sat in the living room, considering possibilities for our Saturday. Our 9 yo Rachel saw an opportunity to make her requests.
“Daddy, can we go swimming today?”
— “No.”
“Why not?” she asked in her matter-of-fact way.
—- “When you are a Daddy, you get to make powerful decisions that everybody else gets to live with. Be glad you’ll never have to be a Daddy.”
And THAT, I realized, is perhaps my most daunting responsibility as a parent. I don’t like being the one in charge, making those powerful decisions that others get to live with, day in and day out. Sometimes it gets to be overwhelming.
“Gloooooom, Despairrrrrrrr and Agony on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Woeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe!”
Sometimes, I sing Hee Haw when I feel that “woe is me” attitude settling into my bones, to spew such dark thoughts far from me.
I wonder if a little perspective shift on my part would move the whole authority thing into the underwhelming category for me?
Prairie Sings 