Life Father, Like Husband

When I was 12, my parents took me and my sister on an amazing trip to Europe and England. My dad told us all kinds of crazy stories about his youth...none of which were really role model material.  After each of them, he'd repeat, "Do as I say, not as I do!"  Lucky for him, we were really good kids and there was no chance we'd do the things he did!  Nuts!!

There was one major memory in my head from that trip, though. I think about it often when I see my dad with my kids.

We went to visit his friends who lived in this massive castle...at least, that's what I remember it looking like. They had two little boys. They were probably about the same age as my kids are now. One of the little boys fell and hurt himself and I remember my dad going through some ancient witch doctor healing ritual with the kid.  It was things like, "rub your hands together and say Poof!  Go away ouchie!" Then he took a feather, rubbed it on the kid's knee and blew on it until the kid was giggling from the tickles.  He was totally distracted and had no idea his knee had a gaping wound on it, nor did he care.  He was up chasing my dad in no time.

I remember thinking how awesome my dad was to be able to help a little kid like that.

Fast forward to present day...

I've been really easily frustrated lately.  My job is really stressful right now and Small is still waking us up every four hours at night so I'm tired, impatient and grumpy.  My kids drive me batty quite often with their fighting and saying mean things to each other.  My response is many times inadequate with the ol', "Would you PLEASE STOP HITTING YOUR BROTHER????"  It never works.  I don't know why I bother trying.

But, the other day, I noticed that my husband is a star at distractions. He gets the kids up and playing a game. Or he makes silly noises and gets them laughing.  He does all kinds of things to get the kids doing what he wants them to do.

And the other day, when he started rubbing Big's knee because it hurt and then they both blew on it and started giggling, it reminded me of my dad and the little boy at the castle.

I always knew both my dad and my husband were amazing dudes.  But, I guess I never really realized how similar they are in how they deal with kids.

I guess the old adage about little girls marrying their dads has some truth to it!

Either way, I guess I got lucky in both respects!