posted on Dec, 31 2007 @ 08:18 AM
Nope, not comedy. I'm not going to discuss how crazy my son is. He is. I'm not going to talk about how he breaks everything. He does.
Nope. Not going there. Not today.
I'm talking about the real payback of parenting. The smiles on their faces when you do something for them. The unsolicited hugs or "I love yous."
That's what I'm talking about.
As some of you might know, I took the family to hell, I mean Florida last week. Mother inlaw. It was, well, bad. We planned the trip a while back
and then had to rework it as I managed to score 3 tickets to the Hannah Montana concert this past Friday. For those of you not in the know, Hannah
Montana is a 15 year old Disney Channel product. She has her own show and she also sings. My 5 year old is in love with her. So anyway, my
friend's company was handling marketing for the event and he put in a request for three tickets and we got em. Good seats too. No, not good.
Insane. I didn't sit this close to the stage in a lage sold out concert without sneaking and bribing my way in until I was at least 25.My 5 year old
was 6 rows off the front, 3 seats from the center stage runway. As I said, insane.
So, we get there and she's sort of overwhelmed by the scene. The opening band comes on (boy band) and the girls are screaming and I'm starting to
understand what beatlemania would have been like if the fans were all 10 to 15 year old girls. Deafening in the Coliseum. Shrieking girls
everywhere. My daughter sat in her seat, somewhat stunned by it all.
As soon as they ended she perked up a bit. Then, the lights went out. The drummer started drumming, the guitar player strummed a few chords, my
daughter jumped up onto her seat and stood there for roughly the next 2 hours. Singing, dancing, waving her hands in the air like she was at some
kind of revival. The smile on her face stretched from ear to ear. She was, at times, maybe 15 feet from her idol. There were explosions, fireworks,
confetti and streamers shooting out and not once did she flinch or get freaked out (like many other younger fans there).
Several times during the show she leaned over and kissed me. Told me it was "the best concert" she'd ever been to (not sure what she was comparing
it to) and I was "the best daddy in the world."
This was Friday night. Saturday morning I awoke to my daughter, lying in my bed with her arms around me. She told me she was dreaming about the
concert and it was almost as good as being there. She kissed me and told me she loved me.
Sunday she spent the day with my wife and I took the boy to the Museum to see dinosaurs, dragons and other fun stuff. The girls went to the Christmas
Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. I've never seen the show but I've heard it is aptly named.
Anyway, they call us up after the show ends to see what we're up to and my wife is telling me how my daughter loved the show etc. My daughter gets
on the phone and she starts telling me all about the show, how amazing it was, how it snowed in the theater and the dancing and animals and the 3-D
movie and then she stops and in a whisper says "it wasn't like the concert daddy, that was so much better but don't tell mom ok?"
Monday morning, sitting in the office and sure enough, the phone rings. I pick it up and it's her. "Daddy, I was just telling LaLa (that's what
the kids call the sitter) about the concert. It was the best birthday ever - I love you." Then I heard what sounded like a car crashing thru a
storefront window, heard my wife screaming my son's name and the line went dead.
Like I said, the joys of parenting.