To a young child, a dad is larger than life. He’s a role model, a provider, a strong man- even a super hero. My four-year-old students and I recently had a discussion about daddies. Here’s what they had to say…
What is your daddy’s name?
While most of the children gave me first names- Len, Nick, Tom, Alex- a few simply said, “His name is Daddy.” Isn’t it though? He literally is called Daddy; it MUST be his name! One child understood the distinction. She answered, “Well, his name is Victor, but we just call him Dad.”
What does your daddy do?
Typical answers were “he works at his job” or “he goes to work,” but many other children focused on what he does WITH THEM… “He plays race car games with me” or “He builds Legos with me” or “He plays wrestling with me.” Did you know that for a child the word LOVE is spelled with 4 letters- T-I-M-E. Young children are so very aware of the moments you get in their world!
How old is your daddy?
“I don’t know” was the most common answer, and I told them it’s okay not to know. Some explained, “I don’t know; he never told me” and “I forget. Mommy doesn’t even know either.” The ones who did know were very specific: 35, 36, 42. And then there were the guesses… 10? Um, 69? “40 or something; he’s really old and my mom’s 16.”
What does dad like to eat?
So dads like pizza and meat and hot dogs and sandwiches and salad and “green bean soup” and turkey and oatmeal and mac & cheese. There’s one dad out there who just likes “ketchup with everything.”
What does Daddy watch on TV?
Lots of our dads watch “the news.” And of course they like sports… football (“our team is the Eagles.”), golf, soccer, the Flyers game, the 76ers. They also watch “cop shows,” Star Wars, Walking Dead, “the catching fish show,” monster movies, hunting and animal shows. One little guy summed up his dad’s television viewing habits: “Man TV and man videos and football.”
What does Daddy like to do for fun?
According to four-year-olds, what dads like to do for fun is…… play with their four-year-olds! Bike riding, pushing me on my swing, jumping on the trampoline, playing hide & seek, playing Uno, going to the park and playing my pirate ship with me. Again, if a four-year-old could spell, he would spell the word LOVE like this: T-I-M-E.
So here’s to the dads out there- your children look up to you and count the time you spend with them as their love language. Happy Father’s Day!