Fatherhood Friday
I've been at my new job for three weeks. So far so good. Boss is solid. Co-workers seem to be a good group. My responsibilities have already increased and I've gotten positive feedback from those who matter. In short, its been a good start and my credibility seems to be fairly high.
Which is why I felt torn twice today, tempted to use some of that capital, to play a little hooky. The first temptation was as a dad. The second was as a guy.
Each Friday at my kindergartner's school (K-8) there is school-wide assembly. At the end of the assembly one kid gets called up to read a joke of the week he or she previously submitted. Yesterday, we got a note from the teacher who runs the assembly that my son's joke was selected. The challenge for me was that his stand-up debut was going to take place well after I was already supposed to be in the office.
The second temptation probably sounds more pedestrian, but I felt just as conflicted. I recently moved to a new town and a new buddy of mine invited me to leave work at 2 p.m. and join him and some other guy friends to watch the local team in the NCAA basketball tournament. I'm not an especially passionate college basketball fan, but I place a very high value on having guy friends and doing guy things with them.
I'm pretty sure - though I don't know for sure - my boss wouldn't have cared if I either arrived early or left late, though both would have been a sketchy proposition. Nonetheless, I decided to forgo both options and stick around the office, even though it was pretty slow. I felt that it probably wasn't wise to spend all my capital at once.
I know I'm fortunate to be in a position where even entertaining these options is an option in itself. There are also going to be many experiences in my children's lives that I won't witness or participate in firsthand. And, there will be other opportunities to do guy stuff with new friends. But the truth is, these opportunities don't come up as often as I would hope.
I guess the important take away is if you can't take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, you better make additional opportunities. Fortunately I'm going to hang out with the same buddy tomorrow afternoon. With our kids.
(Photo credit: AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek, 3/15/09, Villanova, PA)
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