Dad to the Rescue

Submitted by Andy McKennan

“Dad’s stepping in here to save the day!”

Sometimes as a working parent, you just have to roll with the punches … and try to see the humor in it all. When my oldest daughter was in the 3rd grade, her teacher planned a class bicycle excursion, and our daughter dutifully told us that a certain day was “Bring Your Bike to School Day”. This was before organizations used the Internet for communications, and cell phones with those handy calendar reminders were not yet a thing. 
 
On what I thought was the day before "Bike Day", I was dropping my daughter off at school. As I recall, we were running slightly late, so we missed the throng of other cars disgorging school kids. But as my daughter was exiting the car, I saw the mother of one of my daughter’s classmates unloading her child’s bicycle from their car. With a growing feeling of dread, I asked the mother, “Is today Bike Day? I thought it was tomorrow.” “Nope,” she said, shaking her head, “it’s today.” She seemed empathetic as she gave me a rueful smile, knowing I faced a considerable drive back home and then returning again to the school. Also, we both knew I’d be late for work. 

​But as a parent, you do what you have to do. I certainly wasn't going to let my daughter miss out on the class bike ride. So I told her not to worry and immediately headed off to get the bike and drop it back at her school well before the class excursion would begin.  And so I did.
 
Even though things like this can be frustrating and annoying, I remember also feeling a certain amount of self-satisfaction -- “Dad’s stepping in here to save the day!” I retrieved the bike and got back to the school as quickly as I could, only to run into the teacher who said to me, “No, Bike Day is tomorrow.”  Just like my daughter had told me.  

​This is one of those stories that seems hilarious now. Back then? Not so much.

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--  Exact Change by Andy McKennan

Andy McKennan is a retired Marketing Specialist who holds a BA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


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