On two separate occassions, my wife has traveled overseas for a week or more. While it is common for me to be out of town, it is very uncommon for my wife to be away. When she's away, the whole dynamic of our household changes. I have to be both father and mother to our teenage daughter; a solid reminder of how much my wife has on her plate.
While I will never compensate for her absence, I have truly enjoyed time with my daughter, Lily. One of my most cherished memories will be taking our daughter out on "dates". Dads of teenage girls, I highly recommend this.
On date nights with my daughter, I have a three goals. The first is to expose her to culture and art. The second is get her comfortable around adults. And lastly, I want her to experience what it is like to be treated like a lady, so when she is really dating someday soon the bar will have been set good and high.
On our first date, I took Lily to a concert at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center , where we saw a wonderful jazz concert. While she enjoyed the concert, I think she most enjoyed being in such a beautiful place and having a grown-up night out.
On our second date, which was just a few weeks ago, we attended an evening exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The exhibit featured several pieces by Georgia O'Keefe which my daughter loves. As we toured the gallery, I saw how well she responded to the art and what she liked. She made good observations and had brilliant questions too. Her favorite was an O'Keefe painting of a sunflower. We didn't stay too long; long enough to enjoy the art without feeling the need to really study it too seriously. Again, I could see how much she enjoyed a grown-ups night out. We ran into a few people we know, like our next door neighbor, who commented on how beautiful she looked.
Famplosion is a great resource for finding fun things to do with all of your kids, no matter what age.
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1 comment:
Lily is a lucky girl. And you are a lucky dad.
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