Good Dads

E's dad had to work today, on the one day a year when dads really matter. Of course, I'm being facetious, but not really. I mean, dads kinda do tend to get the - as my husband likes to call it - husband end of the stick sometimes. And I don't really know why. I mean, I know why, but I don't really know how it has gone on for so long. How is it that moms spend so much time trying to convince the world what a hard job it is (myself included), while there are all these dads just quietly plodding along with the business of being dad and still coming off like the guy who looks after the kid when mom is busy and probably can't be relied upon to do it right? A good dad may, on the surface, blend into the crowd and not attract too much attention, but their worth is not measured in points and trophies. Good dads make good people. Happy people. They make girls and boys who know they have a place in the world, and give them the strength to reach out from where they belong, to what they can achieve. There is no substitute for a good dad.

Tonight, while my daughter's dad is sitting by the bedsides of other people's children, his daughter is sleeping peacefully in the next room, and I am reflecting on what a truly wonderful man he is. 

When I am completely out of patience, he has a fresh supply. When I am sticking to my guns and going down with the ship, he's caving like a wet sandcastle - and defusing the situation. He never forgets sunscreen, he doesn't make mountains out of molehills, and when the two of them are on their own, they're guaranteed to have a good time. He is the yin to my yang, the Ricky to my Lucy. And as if my humble endorsement weren't enough, just ask the expert, who thinks that her dada is the "goodest dada ever".

To all of you good dads out there, today is your day. Soak it up. You deserve it. And may the memory of it keep you sane for the next 364 days of being asked if you're babysitting when you're at the park with your child, sans mama.