I Mess Up A Lot: And You Are A Pain In The Butt

Hope,
Sometimes, you are a complete and total knucklehead.

This morning, for example, you wanted to wear some tights to school. These are also known as leggings. The problem is, that there is a dress code at our school, and part of that dress code is that you can't wear leggings that aren't clearly covered by your shirt. So your shirt has to cover your rear end when you wear leggings. The other problem is, that I teach at your school. So the last thing I want is for you to show up in tight leggings with your little 2nd grade hiney showing to everyone, and your teacher has to call me and tell me that you are not meeting dress code. Then, you will have to go to the nurse's office, and they will give you some clothes that somebody donated back in 1989 for kids that don't meet the dress code.

At that point, not only will they call me, but you'll have to spend the rest of the day wearing a jumper with school buses and apples on it or whatever was out of style enough to be donated to the nurse's office in 1989.

Really, I'm trying to protect both of us.

But you don't always see it that way. So when I asked you to change, you argued. I offered a bunch of appropriate suggestions, but you didn't like any of them. I went through your closet, piece by piece with you, and even offered you suggestions on other things that you could wear WITH your leggings (the leggings were important to you). But you didn't like any of my suggestions. In fact, today, you didn't like ANY of the clothes in your closet. Like, ANYTHING.

I'm worried about what you are going to wear tomorrow, because you told me today that you didn't like anything in your closet today.

So we couldn't come to an agreement. Because you act like a knucklehead sometimes. But so do I.

You see, when I was your age, I refused to wear pants, ever. I wore athletic shorts, all the time. Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall: athletic shorts. One day your grandmother, my mom, made me wear jeans to kindergarten, and I hated them so much, that I hunkered myself down in the reading tub, and refused to get out. I just screamed, "I'm hottttt!!!, I'm soooo hottttt!!!" over and over again. We'll my mom worked at the school too, and she had to come down and give me some shorts so I would quit acting like a raving lunatic.

You would think I would have some sympathy for your clothing issues. Lord knows I had plenty of my own growing up.

Instead, I yelled at you, really loudly. I yelled at you, and took away priveledges, and I yelled at you some more. It's hard to feel like a good dad every day, particularly on days like this. I'll try and do better next time (maybe tomorrow).

I love you, even when you are a pain in the butt. I hope you love me, even when I yell at you.

Dad