From the upcoming new blog on WOAI.com called “Dad World” …
By Dillon (aka Dad)
The other night I was sitting with my son Chase in the living room. He had started a game of checkers against my daughter Averi. Of course Averi is only three, so her interest level was about a one. So I took over for her about a quarter of the way.
Chase was so proud to tell me he had three of my checkers and he had been ‘kinged’ twice. I smiled and started playing the game lighthearted. A couple of moves into it, he took one of my checkers and gave that look of – “ha ha I’m better than you at this game!”
That’s when my competitive nature took over. I know he is only seven and I’m thirty, but hey man - this is dad’s world. I was checker champ when I was his age. They used to call me the Bobby Fisher of checkers. Anyways, my next few moves blew his mind, and also took that look of winning right off his face.
So I now had the edge in this game. In a few more moves it was going to be over - and most importantly - it was going to be bedtime!
I looked up at my wife thinking she was going think I was the coolest thing to walk this earth. But that’s not the look I got. I got the look of, “Really?!?”
But me being the dad I am, I pushed through the dirty looks from my wife and the tears of my son -- and soon victory would be mine! We finished the game and, yes, I went for the win - and got it.
My son just looked at me and got up and went to bed.
As he got up to leave, I realized something. As a dad, sometimes you have got to let the competitive edge go, especially when it comes to your children.
I went to his room to talk to him about the re-match.
He said, “bring it on!”
That’s what I love about him. We both said good game and he went to bed.
As dads you have to think how big of a role model you are to your children. You don’t have to beat them at everything. Because if you really think about it, they already brag about you at school and talk about how you can eat a whole hot dog in two bites.
