Daddit - Parenting for Dads

Just that. Can be accidental pregnancy. Can be that your partner wanted to have kids, but it has to be why YOU made the decision.

We got lucky.

My 2-year old is a climber, which I’ve happily encouraged. We went to a new park over the weekend. He naturally gravitated to the biggest play structure with a tall slide and a rope net to get up to the landing of the slide. The landing was about 10-12 feet high.

Youngster climbed up the rope net onto the landing and slid down once, twice… but on time #3 he slipped while swinging his foot onto the landing.

I had prepped myself to catch him if he fell backwards but to my horror he bounced off a rope and then fell through the rope net under the structure the whole 10-12 foot height. With the rope net in between us, there was no way to get to him in time. He landed on his back on the wood chips of the playground.

And in that moment I was scared out of my goddamn mind.

But. Fortunately. We got lucky.

I say we got lucky because:

• his landing was perfect. His lower back took the contact and then transferred the momentum to his upper back and neck, in the way martial artists train to fall.
• the ground was a thick bed of wood chips that clearly absorbed enough of the energy
• the impact on him caused him to bite his tongue and……that’s it. He cried, of course, and bled a bit from that small wound, but after 20 minutes or so had normalized and was ready to try the rope net again. I let him, holding on to him lightly this time, in support of him moving past the creation of a deeper trauma response than what he already had just gone through. And he did the route 2 more times.

It’s been two days since then. A healthcare professional checked up on him yesterday and gave a thumbs up. Youngster has gone on with life like nothing happened. I’m the one still processing the fear and horror. 😂 so it goes.

I will say my reflex blind spots have humbled me a bit. I’ll still encourage adventure but I’ll be making a bigger effort to figure out how I can reduce risk and catch what I might be missing.

Is this sub still active?

Just wondering what you do when the kids always want one parent over another?

Both of my kids are always about daddy (me). Even when mom spends time with them (2 and 5), they’re still asking about daddy all the time and it’s driving her crazy because they always want time with me rather than her.

I absolutely adore spending time with both of them. I’ll bathe them, put one of them to bed (mom gets the other one and we alternate), I help them get dressed in the morning, drive them to school and pick them up about half the time, change diapers and everything.

I’m very aware that you get 4 or 5 years with your kids then they’re not your little kids anymore and that part of all of your lives is gone forever.

Getting my kids (2 and 5) out the door in the morning can be a challenge (you know it) so I decided to try and take something mundane and make it special. The “bumpy shortcut”.

Really it’s just a back laneway to my youngest’s childcare and a slight detour for kindergarten drop off, each with a set of speed bumps. But it’s different and had a name they can latch onto.

And so…. Everyone has had breakfast and got their shoes on, so we have time for the bumpy shortcut today!

Or (looks like we’re not focused enough today to get out the door on time, guess we can’t take the bumpy shortcut).

When I do the “shortcut” I make a game out of who gets the big bumps at speed and who gets a “little bump”.

They both love it. Try and take something every day and make it special for them!

So, inspired by Bluey, I started playing a new water-based game with my son and daughter, for the past few months, who absolutely love it.

Welcome to "Crocodile" (it's inspired by Australia, after all!)

1. Dad is at one end of the water with one of the child's toys sitting next to him on the edge of tub or pool.
2. Child magically turns dad into an animal (Crocodile was the first one), so dad magically turns into a very sleepy crocodile protecting his "treasure" with his eyes closed.
3. Child has to sneak past to retrieve their toy from the crocodile, who sleeps rather restlessly, and occasionally flexes/snaps it's jaws (dads arms) as noise and ripples disturb it's otherwise tranquil slumber.

Of course I give them a few "scares", then let them grab the toy, to the tune of much giggling.

We've also done

• jellyfish (fingers floating lazily on the water), no stinging, but these jellies tickle!
• hippo (snoozing with mouth under water, breathing through nose blowing bubbles)
• ducky (two fingers clicking together), not super scary.
• and monkey (mostly just noise).

Anyway, as usual, thanks to Bluey for getting dad thinking outside the box to play with his kids even more.