Meeting His Goal

Recently I talked with Oldest Daughter about Husband being a good father.

“He once told me he’d like for us to have nine children,” I recalled.

“What did you say to that?” she tested me.

“I said I wasn’t certain I even wanted kids, but if I did have a baby, it would be just one.  If there were more, he would look really strange pregnant.”

“You must have given in; you had three of us,” she chimed.

“After I saw how wonderful you were, I wanted more. Besides, he was such an excellent father to you, I thought we should have others.”

“What’s this got to do with his ADHD? After all, you like to focus on that part of his personality.”

“Right,” I said. “Actually it has to do with the fact that persons with ADHD have their personal strengths and unique personalities.”

“Well, he is unique all right,” she quipped.

“And in the case of all three of you offspring, the apple does not fall very far from the tree,” I giggled back.

“So what did he do as a father that was so worthy of your bragging on him?”

“Where can I begin or even end? The night you were born, he went to the receiving nursery to get you, then he came to the recovery section ( which is something hospitals did in those days) with you in his arms. He held you away from me saying that I had held you for nine months, now it was his turn.
“Do you remember me telling you what he said when he first saw you?”

“Yes. He called you by your maiden name, which I think was tacky, and said, ‘Ms. Simers, it looks just like me.’ I don’t think my pictures looked just like him.”

“Well, you did resemble him a great deal, and when your brother was born, we thought he did, too.

“Since Crown Prince was extremely sickly from birth, your dad stepped in with his care in ways I could never have accomplished.

“The baby was about two months old when he had his first asthma attack. As we rushed him to the hospital I noticed a helicopter following us overhead. Your dad had phoned the police just before we left the house to tell them we were making an emergency run, and they escorted us because of it.”

“I remembered he carried us around a bunch when we were small.”

“He carried you, fed you, walked the floor with each of you when you were sick.

“Most of all he was always on the alert to teach each of you. For instance, he introduced yourself to plant life when you were seven or eight months old, taught you to roller skate when you were four, and how to ride a bike about that same time.

“He read you Bible stories and taught your three-year-old Sunday School class.”

“ Yeah, I can’t joke about it. That he did. But do you remember when brother call him a name in the store?”

“Indeed, I will never forget it,” I laughed. “Your dad leaned over and whispered in brother’s ear. Since Crown Prince was small for his age, other people thought he was about 18 months old. They didn’t expect this developed voice to boom through the store: ‘I’m not a fart. You’re a fart. You’re a big, fat fart.’ Your dad about fainted right there.”

“And you open a refrigerator door and stuck your head in as far as you could and laughed. I could see your shoulders shake,” reminded Oldest Daughter.

As she often does, she opened her cell phone and called her brother,

“Hey, listen to this. Mom and I are talking about the time you called dad a big, fat fart in the store.” She paused. “Yes we do have others things to do, but mom’s on this kick about how great a Dad he has been to us. Well, yes, I do agree with her.”

I continued, “I remember how he took the new Baby Sis aside in the delivery room to introduce himself. ‘Hi,there, I’m your daddy.’ She still often calls him daddy.”

“He took her around Santa Fe, New Mexico and showed her and us the skeletons and other museum sights. That was such a neat trip. Of course, I think he enjoyed hearing her say ‘skelkinkon’ instead of skeleton,”  laughed Oldest Daughter.

“And even thought their forms of ADHD often clash, he is the first to smirk at her incessant humor and comments. He is one of her biggest fans.”  I said.

“Those are a mere few of the memories I have of him as a father to my three small children. I could go on through your growing years, but you would only get bored with it.

“But to answer your original question, his goal was to be a good dad to his kids, and he successfully met that goal. It is one of his personal strengths.”