JEREMY CORBETT
JEREMY OPENS UP HIS LIFE WALLET AND LEARNS A VALUABLE LESSON FOR FREE
Iam aware I might not see the value my daughters see in certain activities. This allows me to be an awesome dad. Instead of dodging my parental responsibilities because I am bored beyond belief, I can invest time to show respect and support for my children’s choices.
Take, for example, a recent weekend market we visited. In addition to squashed glass bottles fashioned into clocks and painted rocks, there was free face painting.
Our youngest daughter was keen. I explained there was a long wait, but she would not be dissuaded. I drew the short straw and Mum skipped off with Nana and our other daughter to enjoy wine or some such luxury.
No face painting is ever free – the cheaper the face painting, the longer the queue. I opened my life wallet and handed over a valuable chunk of my time.
What followed was the typical “how much longer?” and bored misbehaviour that goes with waiting in a queue. Surprisingly, only from me. My daughter was the picture of patience.
While she laughed, exchanged glances with other kids and did laps around me, I did the maths. I rolled my eyes at how long the artist was spending on each child. Ten minutes! That’s far too long. Ridiculous! Surely they could be done in five.
There appeared to be four kids in front of us, so I reasoned we were 40 minutes away. Just as I was coming around to accepting that fate, two extra children emerged from their hiding place near the parent in front. Gah!
One hour later, my girl was finally getting tended to. And it was worth the wait! In a mere 10 minutes, she was transformed into a beautiful cat. Probably the best face painting I have seen. Free!
We scurried off to find
Mum, Nana and her sister.
She showed them her new cat face with that cute mixture of pride and shyness a completed face paint elicits. Universal approval. I smiled at
Mum. A good dad job had been completed.
As I concluded that the last hour and 17 minutes had been hard work but worth it, my five-year-old decided she wanted the face paint removed. It had been on her mug for all of seven minutes!
I’m not sure how long I expected it to remain, but at least until the glow of my dad-pride had subsided. Nope. Off with the cat! It was itchy or something. I couldn’t do it. Mum had to deal with erasing all that investment.
It would seem our children are naturally aware of the journey being more important than the destination. To our girl, the face painting pretty much ended once the last brush stroke had been made. She wasn’t going to pathetically hang on to the amount of time spent getting there like a debt that needed repaying.
I can see it’s a life lesson well worth learning. And next time, I think Mum should learn it.