Daddy's Day

I ain't talking Father's Day, per se, but I've been having a friendly debate with a friend over whether this day and age is the Day of Dad's, as in dads are the flavor of the month. They're it. They're the in thing. They're cool, and hip.

Bear with me. I mentioned to a friend the other night that I'm looking forward to that day when I'm a dad and that the day I find out it's gonna happen I will be stoked. And he replied with a tsk tsk and a "What happened to you?" I know he was joking when he said that any remaining cool points I have - he says I lost most when I got married last year - will quickly evaporate on the day my first child is born. But there's some sincerity in every joke, I've always felt.

When I was 21, I would have agreed with him. Dad's aren't cool, at least not married dads. Back then I thought that it was only possible for single guys to be cool.

But back then, my measurement of cool was based on how pimpish a dude was - how many women he could attract, how many he actually hooked up with, how well he "maintained" those liaisons, how nice a car he had, how nice his clothes were, and how smooth his overall game was.

If a guy got no girls, had jacked up clothes, and caught the bus, he wasn't cool, no matter how single he was. And game? You had to have more game than Monopoly, or you weren't even considered to be in competition. And a "cool" AKA single guy with a baby was a guy with a burden.

I'm grown up now, and as a grown man I like to dress myself well anyway, 'cause I enjoy it, and it's a mature thing to do. So I think I've got the clothes. Check. I got the girl, and I've kept her. Check. I've got a car that runs well and gets me and my stuff from A to B and back. So in essence, I do have a cool car - as cool as a station wagon-like SUV can be. Check (sort of). I'm all about kids now. Check.

So, my asessment is that my friend is way off. Being a dad will just restore some of my cool points when it happens. Because women, I'm told, like the stink of responsibility on a guy, and nothing produces that scent more than active fatherhood. And for the record, the only woman whose measurement of responsibility counts to me is my wife (had to throw that in there, in case she thinks I'll turn into one of those guys pushing a kid around the mall using it as lady bait).

But me and a stroller? When it happens it's gonna be cool.