Family First

I can only remember two games that my parents missed.  That’s thirteen years of football, four or five of basketball, and about two playing baseball.  And if I’m not mistaken, they went to most, if not close to all, of my sister’s track meets, Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) tests, and speeches.

And it meant something.  I didn’t know it then and it’s hard to say why even now.  But it did.

So, when moments like this come up in the lives of my two children, I make every effort to be there.  Whether it’s my son’s first Christmas Pageant (I’ll post the video of it in a later blog, maybe) or my daughter’s first role in a school play, I want them to know that it is important to Mommy and Daddy.

And today was one of those days.  My daughter turned seven.  My wife thought it would be a good idea to hold a small birthday party with her school class.  So I played hooky from work (well I did some work from the nearby Starbucks, but I made sure everyone knew I’d be tied up with party stuff most of the day) and helped my wife.  After a trip to McDonald’s for thirteen Happy Meals (and a few extra hamburgers just in case), a stroll over to Safeway for a cake-shaped tower of cupcakes decorated with Tinkerbell (my wife ordered the Princess one, but Tinkerbell is one of my daughter’s favorites, too), and the stuffing of gift bags with pencils, erasers, and enough sugar to keep the kids up for a week; we were all set.

And my daughter loved it.  We were on time (which is odd for me, actually) and had everything set up in the cafeteria before her class arrived.  They giggled; they sang happy birthday; they fought over who got what toy in the Happy Meal; they complained about this or that.  But, all in all, it was a good time.

But most importantly, my daughter will remember that mom and dad took time out of their busy days for her.  I hope she’ll continue to realize, as I do now, that she and her brother are the most important things in our lives.

The real teaching moment, though: that I remember that, as well.