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As a father of three children under the age of five, Jason is used to strangers showering him with praise when he performs mundane parenting duties like babysitting his kids in public for five minutes.
“The thing no one tells you about fatherhood,” Jason said, “is that it’s a huge ego boost. I mean, practically all I have to do is walk out the door with my kids and there’s someone there waiting to compliment me on being a co-parent. It’s almost scary. Like, one day I went to check the mail with my son, and a lady waiting down the hall called me ‘super dad.’ I barely had pants on. It’s so cool!”
Unfortunately, years of this societal conditioning left Jason very disappointed when he took his three children shopping last week and received no congratulatory comments from other shoppers.
“I have to say I was kind of disappointed,” Jason said when reached for comment after the 10-minute shopping trip, during which he bought a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and five boxes of M&Ms for some reason.
“I mean, I did it all. I put the kids in the car, drove to the store, got them out of the car, put two of them in the shopping cart while the third walked, and we all walked around the store for a few minutes. You would think, after all that, that at least one person would applaud me for being a model of fatherhood and manhood that all other men should aspire to. It’s really the least they could do.”
Despite his disappointment, Jason vowed to continue being an involved father.
“This experience was tough, but I won’t stop trying to earn the praise of strangers,” Jason said. “I think I’m going to have to improve my dad skills even more. In fact, I think I’m going to take all the kids to the mall today. If no one compliments me on my bravery while we’re there or at least doesn’t list me on their follow list, I’ll have to give up.” New York Times“If that's the case, I might have to give up.”
Writer and father. Founding editor of Frazzled, a humorous parenting magazine on Medium. Author of the novel Love's a Disaster (2024) and the humorous essay collection Fatherhood: Dispatches From the Early Years (2016). I might be doing my favorite hobby right now.
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