Share your "Dad Things" moments

[ken0042]

Using the "Skyview" app on my iPhone, pointing the phone at my son and telling him "I can see Uranus."

That joke never gets old; unless we are out with his friends. However immediately after he gives me a scowl, I catch him doing the same thing to his friends.

[Hatter]

My mom was in an uninsured car crash in the States when I was young. She was hurt quite badly and couldn't work for years. My dad spent 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for 3 years working to pay off her medical bills and still always found the time to make it to as many hockey and baseball games as he could. Some days he would go in at 4am so he could make it home before a big game.

I've never met anyone so dedicated to their family. I could write a novel about the positive influence he's had on my sister and I. We're very lucky to have him!

[Royle9]

I cant wait to start my own memories with either a son or daughter in the close future, once we tie the knot in September 2016 the fiance say's its game on!

Now in my early 30's I've got a share of "dad" stories to tell about my own father. Like most here I could probably share thousands but I'll share the one that "onions" me the most because I found out about it long after my childhood. My dad's father was never around his entire life, dad moved out on his own at the age of 11 , his mother died when he was 24 and so he's done everything for the 3 of us to make sure our lives are better then his was growing up.

Never grew up "wealthy" like most kids, none of us realize that as a young boy or girl we just assume everything is wonderful. Christmas in the early 1990's I was around 8 and received a GT Noma Snow racer and thought it was the BEST gift ever, bragging about it to my friends, dad brought me to the hill every day all winter I'm certain.

What I found out after was mom and dad had literally $13.00 for Christmas Dinner/Gifts and could not make it work. They spent $10.00 on groceries and dad took the last 3 and put it in a VLT as a "chance" and ended up winning upwards of $1200 bucks. They took that money bought the 3 of us kids gifts, put money in our bank accounts and nothing on themselves. We had no idea we were literally hours away from getting nothing, oblivious to the struggles my parents were faced with going into the holiday season and still profited greatly.

Now I take my old man on a fishing trip to the west coast every year, I can honestly say he's my best friend and I cherish the time we are able to spend together as I'll never be able to repay him for everything he's done for me.

[bc-chris]

the better part of my childhood was spent just a little west of the 'center of the universe' in guelph, ontario. the late 70s early 80s were very lean times becuz of the recession. my dad owned his own store in brampton (had it for about 20 years - sold it in 1986 and we moved to bc). due to the recession, times were tough - very little spare $ (mom/dad/3 kids). my dad worked endless hours. he was gone before we got up in the morning and home well after we went to bed. we'd only ever see him on sundays.

one of the things he started doing every year was taking us on a 'big day' (that's what he called it). each kid got to pick a saturday and that day we got to hang out with dad and do whatever we wanted. we'd usually head to brampton so he could open his store and get the staff going and after that i had his undivided attention for the rest of the day. the first thing we'd usually hit up would be the ontario science centre, the rom (royal ontario museum) or maybe the cne (canadian national exhibition). then we'd usually take in a jays game (we always got the footlong hotdogs and a pop - such a treat!) and then an early movie. i remember one year we went to a leafs game (don't have a clue who they were playing) but i remember earlier in the day we went to a little hockey museum where there was lots of stuff about darryl sittler.

big days were awesome... my day to hang out with dad!!


as for stories about me being a dad - well, jordan is almost 2 years/5 months old now and she seems to find great times to say some of the craziest things. one of the things my wife has taught her when she sees a girl/lady is to say 'pretty laaaaaady!' this came about after jordan saw a very overweight lady and commented 'lady button!' the lady didn't catch what jordan said, but jordan could he her bellybutton hanging out from below her t-shirt. so we figured we better teach her something nice to say. this is all fine and dandy until dad is going thru the grocery store checkout with jordan and there is a pretty 18 year old checkout girl and jordan pipes up, 'pretty laaaaaady!' all i can do is smile and say, "how you doin'?!" ha! ha!

i'm sure and her younger brother will give us tons of awesome stories in the years to come!

[Coach]

My Dad spent countless hours building me and my 2 brothers a rink our back yard. We used it a lot, but probably not as much as we should have. I hope he knows how much we appreciated it. I've told him before but he might not remember. I'm going to tell him again. He used to have this full-length insulated jumpsuit that he would use to play goalie for us as long as we were using tennis balls. I'm sure those frozen balls hurt quite a bit still. Thanks Dad.

For a more 'adult' Dad moment: Him and I were building the basement in my newly purchased home 4 years ago. Like an idiot, I had left a bag of Mary Jane around where we were working the night before. After working or an hour or so this conversation happened:

D: What's this? (holds up bag, I stare at it in silence)
D: It looks like marijuana.
M: That's because it is marijuana.
D: Oh. Well, now it's trash.

He threw it in the garbage can, which mostly contained plastic and wood at that point so I figure, alright, I'll just pick it out later when I take the garbage to the bin. And so when I do that I sift through the trash a bit and it's not there. I throw the garbage into the bin and go back inside and my Dad is working in the bathroom.

M: So... Can I have my weed back?
D: What?
M: My weed, can I have it back?
D: No man, that's gone now.
M: Well, you know I can just get more. You're basically just taking money from me.
D: Well I guess that's too bad. It's illegal, you shouldn't have it.

So this irked me a bit, but fine, I was caught. He's my father and a straight laced ex-pro athlete, understandable he wouldn't want me doing that stuff. A week or so later I'm having dinner out at his place and I'm talking with his partner, who is kind of the polar opposite of him (yoga instructor, free spirit type), and I tell her the story. This was her response:

J: Oh man, that was your weed?
M: What do you mean?
J: I thought that was L's weed (my younger brother who lived with them at the time). He can't take your weed. You live on your own, you're self sufficient. He can't just take your stuff.
M: Thank you! So how did you know about it?
J: We smoked it.

And that's when I realized, he didn't give a rats ass that I had weed. He just wanted it. My dad smokes weed, wtf?

[undercoverbrother]

I have a dysfunctional relationship with my dad, it isn't all on him, some is on me.

That being said I try to make all interaction with my kids positive.

At an early age I would put my hand on my daughter and squeeze twice. On her leg or arm or shoulder. As she got older she asked why, and I told her it was me saying "love you". I wanted us to have something for when she got older, and she was struggling with growing up and expressing herself.

She is now 11. I still do it, and she will do it to me. It doesn't matter the situation. For example, before a big hockey game I did it in the dressing room nobody else know, but she knows I love her.

For my boy before every sport event I say the same thing "have fun and don't suck". He is hyper competitive, and I find it relaxes him a bit. He jokes that isn't supportive and I say "telling you to have fun is". It helps him.

There are a number of other things as well, for example my son and I refer to ourselves as Team Penis, it drives the females in the house nuts.

My son has also developed a "Kato" like attack approach to me. He will hide and jump out and "fight" me. The deadliest attack is Penis Hands. He will jump out with his hands down his pants, pull them out and attack yelling "Penis Hands!!"

Being a parent is really great.

[CroFlames]

I am really enjoying the stories. My dad still lives in CGY and I don't, so it's nice to come to the thread and read the stories.

It's funny how the simplest thing ever can leave an impression on a kid.

My dad used to smoke meat in a home made smoker during the winter. The smoke very readily escaped the smoker and so the entire backyard was smoky, but very aromatic. And then we'd always chuck snowballs at each other while it was smoking away and it was a grand ol time.

[Galakanokis]

I love being a dad. Sports, activities, leisure time all of it.

The other day I sat out front with with son and daughter to have a little lunch. My son (6) starts into the conversation about what kind of animal you would like to be. Daughter says kitty cat and I say a bear, want to be big and strong and live free in the wild. My son says he would like to be a Robin? So I ask him is it because it would be awesome to be able to fly where ever you wanted? He answers that would be nice dad but I think it would be really great to be able to poop wherever I wanted and not have to wipe my bum. I got a good laugh at that one, hard to argue the logic.

[fundmark19]

Anytime I would get hurt at a sport which was all the time my dad would always say "Good thing it's a long way from your heart". This led to many incidents of me breaking bones and him not taking me to the hospital for a day or two until it was obvious something was wrong. He was a firefighter so I guess it was his way of toughening me up.

He also made sure that I never stayed down on the playing surface after an injury. Unless I was really hurt I better get off the ice/field and deal with the injury on the bench!

On the parenting side of things my daughter is two so our only traditions are when I come home she comes to the door to greet me and then promptly runs away and hides to avoid getting tickled and hugged. She also has "Daddy don't" down pat for anytime I try to play with her.

[pope04]

My late father was a City of Calgary policeman, old school and tough as nails. My favourite moment with him was bouncers giving us the bum's rush out of the old Bowness Hotel about 30 years ago after an afternoon of drinking.