I had the pleasure of my first ever father and daughter dance last night. My daughter was beautiful and moved with grace! Of course, watching one other father and daughter burn up the dance floor made me wish I had brushed up on some dance steps. Amy and I laughed, jitterbugged, swung, locked elbow to elbow squaring dancing for Rocky Top, and just plain boogied! I stood on the sidelines while she did the cha cha two step. I forgot to Tango with her which she had requested. Of course, the only way my date would accept a dance from me was if I placed my left hand on my chest, extended my right arm out in her direction with a flip of the wrist, dipping my head and making an exaggerated bow. The gym was packed with familiar faces and Amy danced with her friends and had discussions with other dads. I foresaw the future as one of the older girls frequently ditched her father to hang with her friends; 30 seconds of dad, 10 minutes of friends, repeat.
Whenever I post about family, I think back to March 24, 2006 which is when I finally started paying more attention to KristyK’s January 24th wish to see more discussion on blended families.
I know of a few blended families that I read online [Cathy and her husband, Poetical, Educating Hercules]. But,even though these are blended families, I don’t read a lot about the ‘step’ part. [Source, KristyK, there are no rules for this]
Sarah, my older daughter, missed out on doing the father/daughter dance. At the age she would have been doing these dances, her biological father had left, and she, her two brothers, along with her mother were living in the grandparent’s house. I am sorry that Sarah missed that opportunity and I hope that she and I have dances in our future! You may note that we don’t use the word step in this family. It might be different if biodad came around more than 2 days a year. The older children had their choice to call me Doug, dad, that guy, or whatever. They also are free to call me step-dad. Those choose dad in both cases and I couldn’t be honored more! I don’t use step in referring to my sons or daughter because we are so close that at times I forget there was a sperm donor involved.
