If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
My father’s not bald, he’s just got very fine hair. Not thin hair, just fine hair, as in skinny strands of hair.
I told my older brother (who’s got thicker hair than I, in both sense of the description) that my hairdresser commented that I am not balding despite my joking with her; that I just have fine soft hair. My brother then reminded me that our dad isn’t bald, just that he also has fine hair.
I have been able to see my father’s scalp for decades.
Caitlin has a toddler tricycle & a walker-thingy that works like a scooter- a 4-wheeler that you’d sit & propel with your feet. She likes to ride the tricycle & have me follow her with the walker-thingy, pretending to visit the supermarket & needing petrol along the way. I’d have to bend over & push the walker-thingy with my hands on the handle.
I’d get quite puffed by the time we visit the petrol station the second time only. Mind you this is all only in the living room.
For a few months now, I have only been alternating my 2 newest pairs of work pants which are 2 inches bigger than my other pants in my wardrobe. These 2 new pairs fit quite well. Firm, not tight; but which also means “tight” is the next description on the scale of fitting.
When I was single I was quite a health & fitness fanatic. Not the most buffed guy in the gym (when I did visit the gym) but enough to blend in at the trendiest club in a tight-t, getting glances from the top percentage of good looking women & men alike (don’t ask what clubs I frequented, I just like the music they play).
But these days?
Dad Balance advocates striking the balance between fatherhood & work (career). While I am an avid reader of Derek’s postings in trying to apply his ideas for these aspects too, I am still struggling to find the 3rd dimension to the balance- time for self; which in my case the need for regular exercise.
Caitlin doesn’t know the word “fat” yet, but it won’t be long before she starts using that to tease & describe her Daddee. At this instance of time if she did say that to me, I don’t know how to respond: Pout? “That’s not nice..”? “COME HERE YOU!”
Thinning hair, development of a pot belly, a single chin. I am becoming a father racing toward middle age in all sense of the visual stereotype. I also notice the distance between my belly button & my chest is decreasing, pushed forward & up by the ever bloating belly button-pubis region.
It used to be that I’d think I could approach any member of the opposite sex & strike up a conversation without *much* risk of humiliation (whether I did that is another question)…
I think I am losing “it”.
My hairdresser’s response cannot be misconstrued as a pick up line now, can it? No… Can it?
oh come on John!!
stop exaggerating…
is this ur way of fishing for compliments?
well, i guess i’ll succumb then..
I’M SURE U LOOOK FINE!!!
John, not too long ago I had posted about how dads need to find the time for their own hobbies as well. In our struggle to find more time to be with the family, it is very easy to overlook the need to spend time on ourselves as well.
Hope you find that time for your self balance!
3 years ago when I was still working, I bumped into my youth counsellor and she said I looked like when I did while still in high school.
Think I’m loosing “it” too. Guess when you become a parent, you develop a certain “parent” look!
Be proud… but still have to take care of your health, aye?
I guess I don’t have to worry about losing “it” because I am not sure that I ever even had “it” - but I am still happy, lol.
single chin is better than having no chin at all =P
can you still see your toes?
I gave up on my hair many many years ago - and my daughter has no trouble pointing out my lack of it.
She also had no qualms about letting me know that I had ‘2 chins’ when I was pulling a stupid face the other day to make her laugh.
But I have found kids to be a pretty good motivator to getting in something that resembles ’shape’. Since Wife found out she was pregnant with our second child a little over year ago now I have somehow managed to lose over 50kgs (over 110lbs) and now longer break into a sweat while just watching sport on the TV.
The motivation was simple - I could picture my daughter speaking at my funeral far easier than I could picture my self speaking at her 21st birthday party.
Now if I could only get my damn hair to grow again all would be good.
Of course I never had ‘it’ and these days I am too old and tired to know what to do with ‘it’ even if I did find ‘it’.
Thanks everyone for your comments!
Lynn: you are right, I meant to say I have no chin, that it is now a straight line from bottom lip to my Adam’s apple!
ToddlerDaddy: I have thoughts about that too- living healthier & longer. Not as grave a description as yours but at least be able to kick the ball around with the coming-soon son.
It’s a long weekend now in Malaysia (end of Ramadhan); it’s my birthday tomorrow (my “it” ever fading). Last night we had a birthday dinner. I managed my own pasta (vegetarian, but still), Caitlin’s lasagna (kids size, but still), her scoop of ice cream, 3 slices of magharita pizza (thin crust, but still), & TWO slices of my birthday tiramisu cake… I was the epitome of a local over-used joke of someone like that: The local city council’s sweeper-truck.
And the long weekend isn’t over yet!