Learning

You know somethin'?

It is so cool when instead of being the teacher, you become the taught.

It's been happening for quite a while now, probably the last ten years or so. As a parent you teach your children, right? So that is what LifeWife and I did. We taught our children. Then over a period of time we found that instead of being the teachers, we were becoming the taught!

What have they taught me you ask? Well, let's see. They taught me that wearing black socks with running shoes was definitely uncool! They taught me that my role as a parent never ends, my job as "Dad" never ends, they still need me. Sometimes it will be a totally different aspect of Dadishness that they will need, sometimes it will be typical Dadishness that they need. Sometimes it will be Dad in a way I'd never quite thought of before. They taught me that it is possible to move from Father to Friend, yet still be Father. (Now that is totally amazing! I revel in that.)

On Father's day we all got together, and celebrated, BBQ in the backyard, hanging out together, relaxing, enjoying each other. BUT Fathers day for me was really yesterday, a week after the official "event". Why you ask? Well I'll tell you why. Yesterday my three daughters took me out to see "Harry Potter The Exhibit", at the Science Center.

Which brings me back to being taught, I love to read, I believe I have taught my daughters, the joy of reading, but here is where the teaching comes in, (I used to suggest books for them to read) now I'm having books suggested to me, by them! Way cool! In fact, there was a day that the older two and I went around to about three or four used bookstores and I was making suggestions to them about books they should have in their libraries. That was a fun day, exploring, looking for books. Now since then D3 has discovered the JOY and she and I have a plan to do the same thing at some unspecified point in the future. (Actually if they are available, D1 and D2 would be quite out out if they weren't invited along.) I would probably never have read the Harry Potter books if they hadn't suggested them to me. Totally enjoyable reads, each book. It's probably a time for a re-read.

It started with all three of them putting on the Sorting Hat, which was kinda cool. We had a great time wandering around the exhibit, looking at the costumes and props. They had some monitors with some clips from the movies, which brought back a lot of memories and we wistfully commented what an awesome thing it would be to watch all the movies in one day, what a marathon that would be. Marketing being what it is of course on the way out of the exhibit there was a "Harry Potter Store" with all kinds of "gear", they had the books and the movies and chess sets and pencils and coffee mugs, some of which revealed hidden images when hot liquids were poured into them, tshirts hoodies, fridge magnets, wands, HP glasses, some of the Weasley twins weird candy, they had just about anything you could think of. So as "Dad", I bought them each a bookmark, and a fridge magnet.

Then we went out for dinner at Spring Rolls, one of our favourite restaurants. We all were taking it easy and no one was in a rush and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Me an ma gals!

Now THAT was a Father's Day!