Don’t Miss the Twirling Moments
Hey Dad,
We’ve been home from our south Speaking tour for just over a week. We left Florida and it’s been rainy and cold ever since. But I’ve still been basking in the memory of vacation and uninterrupted family time (but it’s growing fainter by the second).
While away I made a mental note of something I saw to share with you when I got back home. It was sad to me…but something I see played out too often.
It happened one evening as the sun was setting and the lampposts were just beginning to glow. I was with Jed (10) and Cal (12) doing the dad/son thing when I found myself outside a gift shop waiting for my boys to join me.
As I stood drinking in all the good feeling I noticed two little girls playing on the sidewalk enjoying the freedom to stretch and run. They were giggling and playing tag. That’s when I noticed their parents, a tired mom and dad sitting on a log bench, their faces buried in their phones.
As I watched them I saw one of the girls twirl around like Cinderella at the ball wearing a huge smile on her face. It was quick and the second she stopped her dad looked up. The twirl was over, and he missed it.
That’s the thing about smart phones, they’ve distracted us from the twirling moments. Those unannounced, unplanned, spontaneous moments of pure joy and silliness that parents used to watch as their children cried, “Watch me, Dad.”
I half wonder as I write this if children have stopped saying, “Watch me, Dad” because they know their dad is on his phone and deaf to their calls.
Dad, I’m telling you when you’re with your children, put your phone down or get rid of it because you’re missing the twirling moments. They’re brief and pass like an unexpected breeze on a Summer night…and then they vanish.
Make sure you don’t miss a single one, Dad. They’re too precious and shouldn’t be exchanged for a You Tube video about a shark.
You ‘da dad,
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John Eldridge also points out how much girls need their dads to notice them. They ask the question of whether they are captivating. Here’s the thing…if we don’t notice our daughter, and then say that we notice her and how wonderful and how beautiful she is, then some teenaged boy who may not have the purest intentions in his heart will eventually notice her. He’ll tell he he notices her. And he may have ulterior motives.
In fairness I have ulterior motives in letting my daughters know they are captivating. I want them to grow up knowing that God notices them, loves them, treasures them. I’m a poor excuse of a facsimile of the Father, but I can point them to the One whose attention means everything. And it’s as simple as holding her face between my hands, kissing her on the forehead, and telling her she is a beautiful princess, a daughter of the King.
Phones can play shark videos? I better never find out how that works.
Preach it.
Shark videos are my downfall.
A great and timely reminder and something I admittedly need to work on
Me too!
Todd, thanks for this. I had the pleasure of seeing hundreds of “twirling moments” recently as my wife asked for some pictures of my mother and father in-law with our kids for a tribute at their 60 year wedding celebration this Saturday. It was a tearful, joyful, memorable, regretful, rejoiceful, honoring, reflective, [add more adjectives and adverbs here] hour or two journey down short road. what was interesting was the response of the kids as they saw what I was doing and their reaction as they all (those that are still home — 4 of 6) gathered around to laugh and remember. Remind dads not to forget all those “electronic/digital” memories that are so voluminous now that we never go back to them, somehow comforted by the fact we took them.
I was really feeling like da dad!
P.S. that picture of your bike family a week or two ago was GREAT! You were perfectly positioned — smiling, bringing up the rear! What a clan.
Wonderfully said. I love that picture too…dad-proud!
I fight this battle everyday. Those moments are so special. I see couples out to each in a restaurant never talk to each other but have their heads in their phones. Breaks my heart.