#bikedad reputation and other summer victories

I genuinely appreciate that my job is flexible enough that I get to be primary parent over the summer, but I’d be lying if I said that I enjoy every single moment of it. Enough of my self-conception is wrapped up in my professional identity (and enough of my anxiety is wrapped up specifically in parenting) that it has taken some real re-orientation over the past several years to turn this into a more positive experience. This summer has not been without bumps in the road, but it feels like it has gone particularly well.

This morning felt like it was full of victories. There are storms predicted for Central Kentucky today—though the prediction keeps changing on when they’ll actually get here—so we began the day with a trip to the grocery store to make sure we had a couple of things on hand. On our way there and back, we listened to an episode of The Re-Slayer’s Take, a kid-friendly (and, frankly, more me-friendly) Critical Role spin-off that we’ve really enjoyed these past few years. This will be our third full listen-through, and we continue to hope for a third season one of these days.

That was nice enough, but the real highlight of the day was heading to “open library” at kiddo’s elementary school. We had fun checking out books and chatting with the school librarian. We talked to them about how district budget cuts are affecting the job, chatted about what kiddo might get up to in school next year, and talked about books, books, and books. On our way out of the library, another family was coming in, and it turned out to be one of kiddo’s friends, which led us to stay just a bit longer to chat.

I swapped numbers with kiddo’s friend’s dad, because one thing I’m lousy at over the summer is getting kiddo together with school friends, and I want to do better at that. I also got a kick out of a comment he made—that he saw two bikes locked up at the bike rack and thought for sure that it must be the two of us. I’m always pleased to get a reminder that I have a #bikedad reputation, especially over the summer, when we (perhaps unintuitively) don’t bike as much as we do during the regular schoolyear. He took the time to tell me about their latest bike adventures and how a new helmet just arrived in the mail today.

It’s a silly little moment, but I appreciate any moment that makes me feel like I’m doing things right. Between this, recently fixing a curtain rod in kiddo’s room, having a reel mower on its way to try out Thursday morning, trying out pickleball with kiddo earlier this week, and recently ordering a new wallet, I feel like I’m living a good dad life this week, and I hope it keeps up.

• parenting
• bikes
• mental health