how silly do you look?...

In the morning, when I drop off Alexis at school, there is what seems like a choreographed dance of cars swirling (slowly) around the parking lot, parents pulling children into the building then running back out on a mission to get to work, etc. This morning, as I hurried back to my orange beast, I saw Jada's dad standing by the window of the pre-toddler room. In a little baby voice, he was saying, "bye...bye...bye." He was waving at the window (I'm assuming Jada was on the other side of the window...), bent down and doing a bit of a jig.

It hit me - children are adorable, but in turn make their parents look like absolute fools. This especially applies to fathers. It's one thing for a mom to pull out her cooing babble to entertain a child, but when a dad ups his voice a few octaves and singsongs his way through a nonsense conversation with his kid, it's that much funnier. Example? A few days prior, I'm parked next to a sensible Subaru with a white collar corporate gentleman playing peekaboo with his 6 month old. Just peekaboo with his hands? Oh no - this was a whole body affair. She was in the car in her seat while he popped up and down from outside the car door. He was "boo"-ing and practically giggling away (though I saw no real response from the little one).

While we feel like ridiculous clowns sometimes when we take a step back and realize what exactly we're doing in public around our children (purely for their amusement) I believe it's also a nice, fun release. I highly doubt that the guy in his white shirt and tie plays peekaboo with the folks in the car as he meets them for a business luncheon. I imagine that Jada's dad doesn't stand in his cubicle, poking his head over to the person next to him saying, "bye...bye...bye".

When we're with our children, not only do we get to experience the joy of them being silly or the exuberance of them making us laugh, but we're also given the opportunity to join in. It becomes permissible to make random noises, roll around, laugh at random things, etc. Being a young child looks like fun, and as a parent, you are given a permission slip to join in whenever you please. So even if she looks at you and in her mind says, "Daddy, you're weird" (or if that person in the car next to you thinks, "Daddy, you're weird"), bask in the knowledge that that means you're having honest fun.