Happy Father's Day

Here's a story from yesterday's Healthy Babies session, a propos of Father's Day.

The facillitator separates the group in two teams: men and women. Then gives each team about 20 cards, each including a strategy for dealing with a crying baby (breastfeed, walk around, put in a swing, check diaper, etc.). Then she turns on the stereo and plays a tape of a loudly crying baby, and tells us to put the cards in the order of how we would like to handle the situation.

Of course, the purpose is to stimulate discussion as there's no, single, right answer. But the other purpose of the exercise is to show that the women spend half the time tut-tutting about the mens' proposed answers.

And a happy father's day to my dad - I'm about to put into practice everything I picked up from him through the years. I hope I can do so with the calm, patience and kindness that he has always shown.