And That’s What It’s All About!

It’s that time of year again.  Pictures are splashed all over Facebook from friends near and far, showing dads in button-down shirts, kneeling next to little girls in twirl-ready dresses and wide, often toothless, smiles.

I love the annual Daddy-Daughter Dance for several reasons.  Of course, I enjoy seeing the posts from all of my Facebook friends.

I also love that the dance gives my husband and my daughter precious time together. While our family is good at spending quality time as a foursome, we aren’t as diligent about carving out one-on-one time with each kiddo. So I appreciate the nudge in that direction.

And the dance gives Ryan a chance to dress up and do her hair and nails, which makes her happy. But, even more importantly, the dance gives my daughter an opportunity to experience how she should be treated by a date.  I hope she learns that she deserves kindness and respect. This will be useful to her once she turns 30 and is actually allowed to date.  🙂

Another reason I love the Daddy-Daughter Dance is that it gave me a chance to get my butt kicked in Monopoly by my 8-year-old son.  I used to be able to hold my own, but those days have apparently passed.  Baylor usually beats me at Connect 4, too.  Come to think of it, he wins at just about any game I pull out of the toy closet. I think it’s time to move on to Trivial Pursuit: Totally 80s Edition.  That should give me a leg up.

This year, Baylor and I had originally planned to go out for a night of laser tag while Dan and Ryan were off doing the hokey-pokey, but the family entertainment center that houses the laser tag course was bedlam, complete with screeching children and blinking lights.  Upon entering the madhouse, Baylor and I looked at each other in mild panic, then quickly retreated. We grabbed some dinner at the drive-through (KFC for the big man and Qdoba for me), and we hightailed it home for a board-game date.  Ahhh, much better.