When Dad Takes Over

A few times a year, Michele hits the road to a conference or to visit some of her liberal Berkeley friends on the West Coast. That leaves Dad, alone, to take over the "Mom" responsibilities. The kids know that this means a few things:

- Hot Dogs, Mac & Cheese and Tater Tots for Dinner. And Lunch.

- Leftover Mac & Cheese for breakfast.

- An extra hour or two a day playing Mario or Wii.

- A bath every 3 days - 4 days if we hit the "cuzzi"

- Several trips to Blockbuster.

The kids do look forward to it, but I think they also crave the limits that Mom is much better at enforcing.

Mom is also better at understanding upcoming events and the potential negative impacts our actions of today might have in the future.

Take the above photo. Michele knew when Picture Day was - I had no idea or even cared. Zoe knew, but has yet to fully grasp the concept of the legacy impact of your Kindergarten photo.

So, when I bought a few packs of Temporary Tattoos for Zoe and her friends, I had no idea it was a decision that could come back to haunt me for the next 30 years - longer if I make it to 80.

All I knew is that the girls disappeared for an hour and I had some alone time to do important things. Like catch up on Season 3 of the Sopranos. Or research Tight Ends for the upcoming Fall draft in my Fantasy Football league.

Important stuff.

Well, as I dropped off Zoe the morning her mother was set to return from a trip, I had no idea that I was positioning to become the most thoughtless father in the history of the Woodland School District.

I'm sure it was the highlight of the teachers, not to mention the photographers day.

So the photo above, is more a statement on my parenting skills than the memorable kindergarten photo it was intended to be. I can only hope that this doesn't foreshadow a future where Zoe believes that tattoos are part of her "look" and her ability to stand out in a crowd.

All I know is that her Grandmother thought the photo was great.

Not.

That's all I have to say about that.