I'm as much of a daddy's girl as I am a mommy's girl. And I'm as much of a mommy's girl as I am a daddy's girl. I have fantastic parents. As an adult, I look back on my childhood and I have so much respect and admiration for how they raised my sisters and me. But if I'm honest, I had the same opinion growing up (except for a few times here and there as a teenager when I thought I knew more than they did). I've always known my parents were good at their job, and I've always looked forward to trying to emulate their parenting skills.
My dad grew up with three brothers and one sister. His family goes: boy, girl, boy, boy, boy and my dad is the youngest. All of the Sansom boys were athletic and I find it so funny that my dad has three girls, all 100% girly. My dad embraced the girl thing though. He sat through dance recitals and cheerleading tryouts. You know what can give both of those things a run for their money? A dance competition.
Dance competitions: Drive 4+ hours, pay a ton of money on gas, motel, and food for the family, and then sit in a dark arena for 10 hours while girls of every age, shape, size, and talent level compete. Do you know how it ends? Everyone gets an award because everyone pays to compete. Okay, getting of my dance competition soap box now.
My dad is a trooper and sat through dance competition after dance competition for his three daughters for almost a decade.
My dad loves having girls and he's the perfect girl dad - he's strong, but quiet. Growing up, he'd always take us on Daddy/Daughter Dates. These were my favorite. Sometimes we'd go to ice cream or to dinner. I remember one particular Sunday afternoon when I was in high school that my dad and I went to see God's Generals - which if you're familiar is 4 hours long and had an intermission. We loaded up on popcorn and candy and enjoyed the afternoon trying to stay awake. You know, I don't remember much about that movie, but I remember the company I had, and I appreciate that my dad spent half of his Sunday with just me.
My family had a tradition: when we turned seven, we got to go on a trip with our dad by ourselves. When you're one of three sisters, undivided parent time is a hot commodity, and getting a whole trip to yourself was a really big deal. My dad took me to Tampa with him and we did everything from drink milkshakes after my normal bedtime to visit the aquarium where there was an almost tragic event with a tiny alligator.
As I look back over my life, my Daddy/Daughter Dates are some of my most favorite memories. And as I dream about what it will be like to be a mom, I dream of moments like these that I pray my children will cherish well into their adult years.
One of Jason and my most favorite things is to talk about what we'd be doing if we had Judah. It's so much fun to talk about our future life and talk about things I'd plan for us to do together vs. things Jason would plan to do.
I'm so thankful for my parents, Daddy/Daughter Dates, and the opportunity for future Mommy/Son Dates with Judah.
