Promoted to Dad

I’m starting to see that my daughter is turning out to be quite competitive. In fact we were already using this trait to get her to do stuff we wanted, without realizing what a big part of her personality this is. There are two competitions she has early in the morning, before going to school! One is with her mother. I am the judge, and I decide who’s brushed their teeth better. Almost everyday I decide that its my daughter, but on some days I call it a draw. Mainly because I like to flex my power as a judge. The other competition, for which a judge is not required, is with me. Whoever gets ready the fastest wins. I think I’ve won twice in the last three months. I’m sure its a matter of time before she figures this out, but right now, she’s very motivated to brush her teeth well and get ready fast. Maybe I’m shooting myself in the foot by typing out all of this. However, after all of this ‘gamification’ being put in practice, I only began to realize the importance of competition for h...

At school one of the children cut some pieces of paper together and wrote a ‘how-to book’. My daughter has written ‘books’ before by stapling paper together before, but this inspired my daughter to write a how-to book. She asked her teacher if this was a requirement and was told that it was not, but its still a nice thing to do. When our daughter told us about her drive to write a how-to book, we asked her what kind of a how-to book was she thinking about. “I want to write a how-to book about how to write how-to books”. We had to work hard to keep our erupting laughter in check. I knew straight away that this one is blog material. I asked her if she would consider writing a how-to book about how to write how-to books that teach how to write how-to books? This was too much for her. She didn’t like this idea. I think it was too niche. Anyway, I had fun helping her. This is the outcome. See for yourself.

We all look for fairness or justice in life, but recently when I read ‘ Tipping Sacred Cows ’, it made me realize how this need for justice sometimes looks like. The author tells a story about a time when he tells one of his daughters that he’ll have to miss her birthday, as he needs to travel for work. The daughter obviously feels bad. When he asks her how he can make up for it, she asks him to miss his other daughter’s birthday. While my daughter too looks for fairness, I’ve not seen her take joy in someone suffering. If my wife kisses her goodbye, but then accidentally kisses me goodbye twice, then she wants that second kiss. If we spend a lot of time in front of our screens, then she wants more screen time. Come to think of it, ‘that’s not fair’, is almost a catchphrase for her. I want to tell her obviously that life isn’t fair, but I’d like to break it gently to her. However, I don’t think I can expect her to stop looking for it. Maybe she can stop expecting it, and not be taken ...