It turned out to be a busy day for me....

It truly has turned out to be a busy day for me.  Not only did I do laundry, go to the bank, and tidy up some of the basement, but this will be my SECOND post today.  I really need to tone it down.  I am going to set a bad precedent.  The next thing I know, I'll be posting once a month..... Yea right.  A good goal but my life would have to slow down first.

Any-hoo, This morning the Mrs. and I thought it would be good to begin to teach my eldest daughter a very integral life skill:  shoe tying.  This stemmed from her telling me that she had to have a classmate tie her shoe when it kept falling off.  I am sure she reveled in the sight of one of her minions bowing down and kissing her feet, umm.. tying her shoe, but I couldn't let that continue and still consider myself a halfway decent parent.  I'm ok with decent or even mediocre.  But I can't condone halfway decent.  Who do you think I am?  Mr. Cleaver?

So this morning's teachings only led to a grumpy, frustrated kid (by my accounts she was grumpy before we started this exercise).  To advert an all out meltdown, we tied her shoes with the promise we would revisit the life skill lesson after school.  My assignment from the Head Master was to research ways to teach a youngin' to tie their shoes on the popular site YouTube.  (If you read today's other post you will know I am no stranger to the video site that has taken the interweb by storm)  I found what I thought would be an easy method.

Once the budding life skill master was home, done with homework, and regrouped herself from her daily post school attitude realignment (believe me, she comes home with more attitude than an '80's Hair Band's hair style) we decided to tackle the task yet again.  Only this time we had our trusty YouTube video.  The easy looking video I thought would work, only made it more confusing.  So we watched a few more.  She watched intently like a surgeon studying surgery.  (not a good analogy but it works; badly)  Slowly she puts the steps together in her brain and then onto the practice shoe in front of her.  She tries.  I give a few pointers.  She tries again.  And again. And again.  Almost.  Try again.  GOT IT!  Try again.  Nope.  But then it clicks.  While she may not do it with speed and accuracy of scorpion hunting its prey, she gains confidence.  And more importantly she did it herself. Wouldn't have any help from dear, ole dad.

She showed off her new skill to her mother when she returned home from a chilly day at work, proud as a peacock.  (Are peacocks really that proud?  I know they make a very annoying sound and there ain't nothing to be proud of that noise)

The moral of the story is my daughter learned something, mostly by herself.  She learned a life skill that will stay with her for the rest of her life.  And more importantly, I won't have to bend down and tie her shoes (while she is thinking I am just another minion bowing down and kissing her feet).  I may lace up a ballet slipper here or there but the regular, everyday shoes and sneakers is no longer in my pay grade.