A Dad’s Observation

When the world was normal, my family was pretty typical. My wife and I both worked full time, our kids participated in activities and we had a very active social life. With our current reality, a lot has changed. One of those changes involved me leaving my job and becoming a stay at home dad.

With my new role, I have had to take on new responsibilities and challenges. There have also been a lot of good things that have come from the change as well. One of the best things is the extra time I am now fortunate enough to have with my kids each day.

In a former life, I was a retail leader which meant working a lot of evenings and weekends. And while I loved my job, it also meant that I missed out on some of the basic day to day conversations with my kids. By the time I got home, they had already told my wife about their day so I would only get the Coles notes version if I was lucky.

To my delight, this has changed and I am now a part of those daily briefings. I get to hear about the drama taking place in my daughter’s class. I know what my son’s favourite activity centre is at school. I am very thankful for this.

I have also noticed there are many other details I have picked up unknowingly. One of those details relates to the different dresses Elsa and Anna are wearing in Frozen and Frozen 2.

When my wife and I were out shopping one day recently, we came across a display of Elsa and Anna dolls that my daughter had asked for. After a brief discussion, we decided to buy one and my wife grabbed a set. Without thinking about it, I looked at the set my wife had selected and told her we needed to get the other one. The set she chose had Elsa and Anna from the original movie but my daughter had asked for the dolls from the sequel.

Now, this may not seem like a big deal but it wasn’t that long ago that I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. After my wife and I had a quick laugh, I once again marveled at how lucky I was to have this opportunity right now. And I promised myself I wouldn’t ever take it for granted.