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Blog Entry 20 of 338 Father Knows... Something. Let's figure out what.
This is my outlet to share with the world all the things I've learned - and continue to learn - about being the Father to 3 young children. But I should warn you that my experience is probably NOT yours: my wife and I adopted a sibling set of 3 - all 6 years old and younger - while in our 40's. We've heard that, "it keeps you young," but so far, it has mostly kept us tired... But like any parent, our kids teach us something new every day and I hope to share at least something here with you as I can. The entries will be short - time constraints will probably keep it at or around a mere 200-400 words - but as they say, brevity is the soul of wit. Let's hope I can create some brevity here. So if you read something you like, please leave a comment. If you read something you don't, please just leave. (Just kidding - I'd love to hear from critics as well.)

The strange obligation
Contributed by: Chris Stone   on 1/20/2007

We've all been a guest in another's home - presumably - and we all know how it goes; we're suddenly all surgeons and have to first promise, if only to ourselves, to "do no harm" before we allow ourselves to advance into those homes. Of course, the biggest problem is that we're bringing our kids along with us, and who knows WHAT they're likely to do?

We were faced with exactly that situation tonight. We were invited to partake in the breaking of bread with a couple from church who have a child almost the exact age - minus a mere hundred hours or so - as Binky Boy. So the standard warnings applied: Thou shalt not scream. Thou shalt not run around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Thou shal..."

"Daddy? Why would you cut a chicken's head off?" came the question from the backseat of my truck. Both the nature of the question and octave of the voice told me that I would be at this for a while...

"It's just an expression. It means I'm asking you kids not to get all crazy-stupid-loud in Miss R's house while we're there."
"And we're going to have chicken for dinner?"
"Uh... well, maybe. I don't know what they're serving. Pasta something, I think."
"Pasta?" My daughter asked.

"Right - pasta. Like spaghetti (thank you, M Garske for reasons you know but I'll get into later), but with a different shape. You know, raviolis, macaroni... that sort of thing. They're all pasta, just shaped differently...

The long and the short is that Binky Boy ate a couple of rounds of penne in red sauce, including some chicken, before he finally gave up. D-Man actually ate an impressive amount of 'trival pursuit' pasta, (for him), given the amount of distraction and lack of parental oversight, before he finally walked away. "M's" problem seemed to be one of not actually noticing the serving of vast amounts of food to large numbers of people as something resembling a meal; namely, dinner.
I'm sure Mommy took care of that as I bathed the boys.

But long before we were at "bathnite" and long before we were hungry this evening, we had to walk away from their home. And as a basis for comparison of self against comparison of self, I can safely tell you that we have never - save one time - left our home as clean and orderly as we leave those homes we visit.
Which would be good on us if only we weren't trying so hard to avoid the late fees...

Chris Stone is a slightly different - hopefully better - Father and man than he was yesterday...



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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Chris Stone

Arvada , CO

Chris Stone has posted 338 blog entries and 149 comments since joining on 7/6/2006. Chris Stone 's average blog rating is 5.
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