Fishing and Fatherhood

With Father’s Day approaching I was asked by our friends at the Pottstown Mercury to reflect on “being a dad” in a blog post.   I suppose with the vast sea of “mommy bloggers” out there, the perspective of someone with a laptop and a Y chromosome is one that is of some value, at least at this time of year.

Now people familiar with this blog know that I write about my daughter Lilly fairly frequently.  OK, not as frequently as I do trout, or scantily clad women fishing in bikinis, but enough to give you a little view into the puppy loving, Cartoon Network watching, chicken nugget eating, Scotch tape wasting kindergarten-graduate that runs our household.

There are a lot of parallels between being a dad and fishing.  To start, before you even pick up a rod (or your wife spits out a kid) you can read a lot of how-to books and watch a lot of videos to prepare you for what you think your responsibilities are going to be. Unfortunately, you’ve got no idea what you’re getting yourself into until you jump in and get your feet wet.

What used to be the best catch…

For me, I donned the waders 6 years ago.  And believe me, not everything has been trophy fish since.  We’re talking the tangled lines of potty training, the hook in the hand of refusing to eat dinner, and snag in the trees of playing far too many video games…all while having to put up with the cutest little smile than makes handing out any sort of discipline a challenge onto itself.

Does it get easier, yes?  But again, just like fishing, once one skill is “mastered,” many more puzzles present themselves.  Once a fly fisherman learns to catch fish, he then typically wants to learn how to tie his own flies…which leads down the path of buying a ton of feathers, tools, and a tying vise, none of which is inexpensive.

Heck, fast forwarding many, many years, I read somewhere that the average wedding cost in 2011 was $27,000.  Yeah, looks like I’ll have to stop tying flies now…

In the end though, even with all of those trials to pass & riddles to solve, I’m not sure if there’s anything more rewarding than being a dad, (including catching a 20″+ trout).  Heck, being a dad is way more rewarding than catching a big fish.  Fish don’t give you hugs, fish don’t make you ridiculously proud at even the smallest achievement, fish don’t sneak into your bed in the middle of the night just to “snuggle,” and fish certainly don’t say “Daddy, I love you.”

…now the best catch ever!

Yeah, being a dad ain’t that bad at all.  Love you Lil.  Thanks for making every day, Father’s Day.