First Date

Last week I went on the first date with my daughter Lea. We had spoken about it often, but never really managed to get down to it. The plan had always been, to go for a movie followed by dinner. Because my son and I share our taste in high octane Hollywood fare, we have had enough opportunities to connect. With Lea however it has been more difficult. Her tastes in entertainment, be it music or movies, really does stretch my patience. Barbie and Aquamarine are really not my "type", in movies, nor are Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift in music! Anyway, we took advantage of the fact that my wife had an official function that evening, to plan and execute our date. Any worries that my son would feel left out were dispelled by his reaction, as he is most happy when he is sitting in front of his laptop or left to his music.

There really were no suitable movies running, and since we have been the sort of parents who have curtailed our children’s intake of sugar and high fat food, the general idea was to take her out to indulge in whatever she wanted to eat. The initial conditions were that she would only buy what she would eat that evening, nothing to be taken back home. When I asked what she had in mind, she was torn between candy, milkshakes, junk food, or Slurpee’s. The choices for her were quite literally staggering, as under normal circumstances she would be gifted with a frown, if she ever asked for any of the above.

As mentioned before, I have done this with my son before, but taking my daughter out for dinner, was a completely new experience! With my son we have deep conversations and sometimes even deeper silences. As with all men, we are as comfortable not saying anything, as we are discussing issues. But with my daughter, it was incessant chatter, all the way from our front door and back. She was excited and it showed! It showed in her staccato monologue, and in her half skip-half run walk as she kept pace with me. By her own admission she loves to talk and cannot stop even if she tries. She started before we left the house, and managed to continue sharing her day, her views on clothes, friends and food all through the evening. I did get in a few words edgewise, but other than that it was her all the way.

Candy is her favorite so was not surprised that the first stop was at Candylicious. She spent some time selecting what she wanted, and to my surprise the basket at the end of it was extremely light. I queried her on it and her response was that she did not want to be greedy. Next stop was Millions of Milkshakes, where we both treated ourselves to a small shake (hers being the Miley Cyrus shake, of course), which sat in my stomach like a ton of bricks. Of course she had kept her "real" wish for last. She wanted to stop in at Hamleys, to see if something caught her eye. Her excitement was infectious as she ran around the aisles looking for that "something". I, of course, knew that we would not leave Hamleys without "something", which proved to be correct.

She had dressed up for the occasion, and unfortunately the walking had resulted in her getting a shoe-bite. We agreed that the last half hour or so, when she went barefoot with her shoes in her hand, would be our secret to be kept from Mom (she generally frowns on such behavior). That also gave me the chance to carry her on my back all the way to the car in the Mall parking, an act that I sense will soon be difficult to achieve.

As we walked out of the Mall after a couple of hours, I truly was content and at peace with the world. I believed that I had spent an entire evening with the most beautiful girl in the world, and to top it off had made her extremely happy.

As an old saying goes - A daughter is a gift of love.