Fatherhood, although the most awesome journey one can embark upon, is riddled with moments when all you can do is stand in amazement as you do your best to hold back the unavoidable laughter which has been brewing and quickly reaching a point of overflowing because of the actions of your offspring. Allowing your child to save face while you attempt to lift them up through their disasters and find the proverbial light at the tunnel is challenging when all you want to do is point and laugh… and maybe throw in a fatherly “I told you so”. This past week I experienced one such moment.
Recently, Lilli, my nine-year-old has been constantly doing her best to convince her mother that she needed to transition into the next phase of life and shave her legs. Although, hesitant at first, we decided that the constant pleas and nine-year-old reasoning were becoming reasonable. Against all my fatherly instincts, and my wife’s reluctance, we for the lack of a better word “caved”. Her mother began the process of demonstrating the fine art of shaving one’s lower legs, while setting strict boundaries and ensuring all safety protocols were adhered to. Doing well, Lilli listened intently and became a proficient user of double -bladed razor, not believing that she would one day regret her decision to begin the process so early, as her mother assured her would happen.
The joy of having multiple children and the excitement of knowing that momma and daughter were engaged in this special bonding adventure quickly hit me and left this father frazzled at the thought of what was soon to come considering his little one was now beginning the process of shaving her legs. This in combination with my ever-resilient dad ears hearing about dating boys and “love stories” simply reiterated the fact that I must now prepare for the pending boy apocalypse in and around my home, which was surly soon to come.
Lest I forget, this process included our sneaky child acting as if she had no desire to take part in the process her sister, one and a half years elder, was embarking upon. Although this discussion took place merely a few months prior, Riyann has never voiced a desire to follow the same path of her sister and the razor. Although strange, I felt relieved that at least one of my babies would remain a child for as long as she could hold out.
This past week brought that concept, firmly held in my mind, to a screeching halt. As I woke up the girls and hurriedly plead with them to get ready for school, I noticed that Riyann was attempting to brush her hair with a hoody on and head covered. As I directed her to remove her hood she reluctantly did so. I gave it no more thought and we quickly went about our preparations. Dropping them off at school, we said our daily I love you’s and off they went to conquer the educational world.
Upon returning that afternoon I noticed Lilli was outwardly upset but ensured me she was fine when I inquired as to what was wrong. We then returned to the motel where I began working on some maintenance issues, when my dynamic duo came to the room and described that they needed to speak to me in private. With great big elephant tears in her eyes, Riyann remained silent as Lilli described that they needed to speak to me, but I couldn’t tell anyone what they were about to reveal. Following some prompting, Riy began describing that she “just wanted to be like” her sister. She then explained that the night prior, while showering she decided that she was going to shave her legs, like her big sister, knowing that her mom told her not to, and she “accidently” shaved off half of her eyebrows. Attempting to reconcile how her eyebrow was removed while shaving her lower legs proved pointless, hence, I simply listened intently while biting my cheek as to not outwardly bust out into laughter over the child’s plight.
Between elephant tears she assured me that her mother was going to kill her, and she didn’t know what to do because it truly was an accident. Holding back my laughter, I inspected the dreaded “accident” and explained that she would be alright and although definitely missing, she had only shaved half the brow and a bit of make up would easily cover her self-imposed flaw. She gleefully agreed but quickly returned to the fact that her mother would definitely end her eight-year-old life over this incident and that she should have listened. I agreed that following her mother’s direction was important and that although she made a mistake, her mother still loved her, and I was pretty certain her life would not end.
As Lilli and RIy hurried off to mend the brow with makeup I was finally able to release my caged-up emotion. As I rose from my laughter, momma entered the parking lot and seeing my smile asked me what was going on. Following my pleas of secrecy and of course her fun hearted agreeance, I relayed the story of our child’s plight. As any good mother would do, she simply said she was going to laugh, and give her a hard time then tell her she should have listened.
Riy survived. We joked and all had a few laughs at Riy’s expense. As I look back, I am reminded about just how many times throughout life we disregard the directions and warnings of others as we attempt to pave our own path in life. We routinely disregard the fact that many times the path before us has already be flattened and if we merely listen and follow the wisdom of others our journey will be smoother. As an old friend once said to me “there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel, use the wisdom which came before us and prosper from their work when necessary”.
