There are a lot of lessons a dad can teach a son–sports, fixing things, impressing girls, getting a job, how to drive, etc. Some lessons can be quite serious such as the value of hard work or how to run a business. There are also fun lessons like how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, how to do an ollie on a skateboard or how to play football. My son is only three years old so obviously he is not ready for a lot of these lessons–although he did just learn to make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches–but that doesn’t mean there is not a lot I can teach him.
The Questions
Everyday my son asks me about 50 to 75 questions. Here is a little sample of what I hear everyday.
“Where did the moon hide?”
“Why is it night time?”
“Can I use deodorant too dad?”
“What are you cooking?” usually followed by “Is the food done yet?”
“Can Ironman bathe with me?”
“Dad, are you drinking beer?”
Sometimes I find myself trying to answer the same question five different ways for him but I guess it’s just his way of trying to understand the answer. He doesn’t make it easy sometimes, coming up with obscure questions but it’s awesome being his go-to-guy, except when I’m really tired or I want him to do something like get dressed but he doesn’t pay attention and just keeps asking me more questions.
Scoping babes and other cool stuff
One of the more amusing questions he is asking me these days is if a particular girl is pretty. He would point at a girl, usually on TV, and ask me, “Dad, is she pretty?” Other times I would catch him staring at a random girl while we are out doing errands so I would ask him if he likes her and he would reply, “Yes, is she pretty dad?” The thing is, sometimes he points out girls that are twenty-something years old–the wife usually rolls her eyes at me whenever that happens. Another question I enjoy from him is if a particular car or motorcycle is “cool” or “wicked”. He has always been into airplanes, helicopters, motorcycles, and cars so I like guiding his budding taste in cool guy toys like this.
I will have to wait a few years to teach him other cool guy stuff like how to open a beer bottle with anything or how to hit the apex of a turn like an Indy car driver (not in that order of course) but at least he is coming to his old man for advice on two important things: girls and cars. Makes a dad kind of proud.
Teaching my son about the world around him has become sort of a pet project of mine. You can check it out over at Guy Wisdom For My Son. It’s a little project I started a few months ago and I plan on doing it for the next eighteen years.