I couldn't say it any better

This is why I've been buying from amazon.com whenever possible.

From xkcd.com, reprinted under Creative Commons License

Cat's in the Cradle

The interesting role of the involved parent- The kids had a Halloween Dance Friday night, and somehow I ended up being the DJ. (Am I a DJ? No, well, not until Friday night I wasn't.)

Back when they were in preschool and kindergarten, I gave little weekly music lessons to their classes. It was sort of early music appreciation (insert surly looking picture of Beethoven) plus Gymboree (Head, shoulders, knees and toes...) Most of the time, I absolutely loved it. In all my life's musical performances (and there have been many), playing for 3-year olds was definitely the time I felt most like a rock star. Every time I went, there was this little chorus of voices shouting "Mr. H! Mr. H!" as soon as I got out of my car. The coolest thing was being recognized by some kid in a grocery cart at Stater Brothers, although Mom & Dad were never too sure who I was.

But for my kids, those days are pretty much over. Hence the DJ gig- I heard they needed somebody for the dance, and hey, I've got a sound system, so why not? It went great, everybody was happy, I learned a lot of new Jonas Brothers tunes. I even heard that one of Alyssa's friends asked her, is it true your dad's the DJ? And Alyssa was really proud to say yes. Good dad, day #1.

Then on Saturday, I was a judge for the music performance category of our church district's annual talent fair. I got there at the crack of dawn to make sure everything was set up. I ended up doing both the judging and working tech. Oh, and accompanying the choir. I cheered for my kids when they got their ribbons and I told them how proud I was on the way home. Good dad, day #2.

Sunday morning, we had an "Encounter" service at my church, which requires extra time & effort on my part. I played for a reprise of the kids' choir number (from the talent fair.) When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was, they didn't even remember the service. What they loved was getting to help me after church by crawling through the attic to help re-attach a cable. It was like they had just lived through Goonies. Good dad, day #3.

And all I can think about is that when we were cleaning Jacob’s room last week we found his baseball glove, which is almost too small for his hands now, and that I’ve never played catch with him. Yeah, I know I’m not an athlete, and we do all kinds of other fun things, but catch is sort of standard, right? I did play catch with Alyssa once. Yeah, once.

I look at the pictures of the dance, and Alyssa’s adorable. We even have a video of her doing the Macarena in her little Flapper-girl costume. Jacob tries to get in on the act, and he just ends up doing some karate kicks. But in those pix, I’m not with them! I’m behind the sound system. After the super-dad weekend was over, you know what Alyssa told Laurie? She said that she missed me. Just something I need to think about.