Dad Voice

There’s an interesting dynamic that comes with being the only dad at the playground (every day at 4pm-ish) with a bunch of moms. I’m the one who will push the kids higher on the swings, and then let them kick me while swinging (some harder than others, what’s up with that?). I’m also the guy who has to yell at the bigger kids to get off the roof of the storage shed, etc, but that’s not a big deal since I am a cranky old codger who’s always yelling at the cars to slow down and the kids to get off my lawn (luckily, not my driveway, yet). But one of the biggest things came to my attention yesterday, when our neighbor Isabelle arrived at the playground gate and all the kids proceeded to start climbing the fence. One or two of the other moms warned the kids to get down, but they kept going. At that point, I bellowed from 20 yards away “Everybody off the fence!” and everyone quickly got down. Another mom congratulated me, “Way to use your Dad voice.” I had never thought about it before, but sometime in the past 5 years or so, I’ve definitely gained some sort of authority to my voice which wasn’t there before. And I think that’s kinda cool.