Being a dad, it’s almost impossible not to learn something about life.  Life’s little lessons, if you will.  Each dad learns completely different lessons (with the normal overlaps), just like each dad has completely different kids.  The lessons can be simple or complex, but they are lessons nonetheless.

Over the past six plus years of being a dad, and eight years (!!!) of being married, I’ve learned a few valuable lessons in life having been around my kids and wife.  I’d like to share some of these lessons I’ve learned with you here in no particular order:

Patience: This lesson is probably learned by most dad’s and is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned.  When I was a young, unmarried man, I had no patience whatsoever.  I drove fast, I walked fast, and I talked fast.  If someone around me slowed me down, it drove me BONKERS because they were WASTING MY TIME.  With kids, I’m learned the whole zen thing of being patient.  You live your life at kid speed.  Granted, most kids are little balls of energy, but when it comes time to head off to school in the morning, it never fails that somebody has a poopy diaper or someone needs to find their homework.  Patience also comes in handy around homework time.  Your child might not understand that problem that is COMPLETELY obvious to you, or the teacher (I’m glaring at YOU again, Mrs. H!) hasn’t explained how the homework should be done. You must have patience to deal with these situations.  Which brings me to…

Temper Control: I never really had a very hot temper and was fairly even keel my entire life, but heaven help the person that DID get on my nerves.  Kids, by their very nature, learn to push your buttons any way that they can.  They don’t listen, they flat out refuse to clean up after themselves, they talk back in that certain tone.  You KNOW what I’m talking about here. I’ve had to learn that this is just their way to assert their independence and test out the waters to try and get their way.  It’s nothing personal, and I can use PATIENCE to outlast these rascals!

Communications: Communications is not only important between husband and wife, but also with the kids and the people involved in the kids lives.  People such as the daycare providers, your kids’ school teacher (Hi, Mrs. H!) and the doctors.  If your child is having problems in school, it’s important that you work with the teacher to find out what can be done to improve the situation.  If your child is having a hard time adjusting to a new daycare, talk to the providers to find out what can be done to help her.  And of course, communications with the kids is important too, even if all you get is “I don’t know”.

Everything is a Teaching Moment: As adults, we’ve already learned a lot of things in life, but sometimes I forget that my kids are experiencing things for the first time in their young little lives.  That rainbow in the backyard?  It’s the first one Princess K has ever seen, and this is a good time to explain to the kids where rainbows come from.  The “alligator” snuck into the house yesterday?  Well, what do “alligators” eat?  Did you know that their tails fall off when they get scared.

How to Sing: I have NEVER been much of a singer.  AT ALL.  I would have been on the “don’t they suck?  HA-HA” episode of “American Idol”.  Think William Hung, but with less talent.  But, heaven help them, my kids LOVE to sing.  ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle, Disney songs, Wiggles songs.  They know every single word and they sing them ALL THE TIME.  In the car, at dinner, while I’m on a conference call, anytime they get a chance.  And OF COURSE, I HAVE to sing along with them.  I don’t care if people look at us funny driving down the road.  My kids and I are having a blast, and that’s what’s important.  So, if you are parked next to us in the car, I’m sorry. Now get over it.

Sharing: I was never much of a sharing type of person.  My stuff was MY stuff.  But when you have kids, or even when you get married, your stuff becomes everybody’s stuff.  Your food belongs to the family.  Everybody wants a bite of what you have on your plate.  The only thing that is really safe are the peas.  Ditto with whatever you are drinking.  I MIGHT get a couple of sips of whatever I’m drinking at the time, but everybody else finishes it off for me. I’ve learned that if I want ALL of my drink, then I need to make myself something nobody else in the house likes, so I drink a LOT of green tea.  And something that I never thought in my LIFE that I would be sharing?  My clothes!  Super Mega Mommy wears my stuff all the time.  Apparently my clothes are “comfy”.  Who would have thunk it?  Hmmm, maybe that’s why I’M wearing them! The kids wear my shoes and shirts around the house because they like “playing daddy”.  I’m lucky I can ever find anything to wear in the morning!

Caring for Someone Else Besides Myself:  Or course, this started out when I started falling for Super Mega Mommy, but it was completely double underscored when we had the kids.  I just can’t believe that I could care for anybody more than how I care for my family.  Sure, the kids drive me completely and utterly bonkers a lot of times, but I couldn’t imagine my life without them.  My life is completely theirs and I would do anything for them.  It started the first second I saw their little icky faces right after they were born all full of icky stuff and I completely fell head over heals for both of them.

Have fun: Life is WAY too short to be cranky and life isn’t ALL about work.  We have to take time out to play and have fun.  I can always mow the lawn NEXT week.  THIS week, the circus is coming to town.  Princess K is allowed to make a mess.  She’s having fun.  We’ll clean up later.  Reading the paper can wait until later, Super Michael wants me to help him build a Lego toy.

So there you have a sprinkling of some of the lessons that I’ve learned over the past few years.  I could have come up with MANY, MANY more, but I’m sure you want to go somewhere else.  Maybe read some other blogs or something.  Well fine.  Some of these lessons were fairly easy to learn, others had to be beat into my head over and over again, but they were lessons well learned.  I’m looking forward to my continuing education over the coming years.  I can’t wait to see what I learn!

Now it’s YOUR turn to chime in.  Did you agree with the above?  Disagree?  What are some of the life lessons you have learned?  It doesn’t have to be something your kids have taught you, it could be something you learned standing in line at a grocery store or watching Star Wars for the six hundredth time in a row.  I look forward to learning from you.