"Schools Out!"

By Arvy Lim

"Schools Out!"

Summertime.

Every kid in America yearns for that time to come, when the sun is out, the days are hot, and the nights are warm under the streetlight games of hide-and-seek and tag. A time when school days and the school daze dissipate and the warm winds of sunlit opportunity kiss the foreheads of every kid who awakes a new day.

It’s also a time for parents, a stressful time oftentimes, to figure just how they’re going to engage their children. Who’s going to watch them while I’m at work? Where will they be? Who do I need to pay?! These are questions that are not only terrifying, but also rife with the stress of figuring how those little shinkickers, pooling in the concrete streets of Crown Heights to the humid households of Houston to the blacktop courts of Seattle, might actually grow up a little and retain some good ol’ schoolroom couth.

Moms are usually great with these problems. As designated superwomen of domestic capacities, moms have the edge of planning, strategizing, and flexing all the requisite muscle necessary to run homes, keep food stocked in kitchens, and somehow making sure all the bills are paid. Dads? Our roles vary. And, ruefully, we aren’t always present with our kids those ransacked living rooms, kitchens, and backyards. We aren’t always there. But...what would we do if we could make our kids’ schedules? Maybe make a few changes here and there and gather the chillens in so we could spend a little more time with them? What better time of year than the summer, when they don’t have much to do, and us dads can get THEM to get in where THEY fit in -- isn’t that the beauty of the summer and fathers?

CoolxDads, our time is precious, but our kids are more precious. Those of us that are in the homes of our children, where do you think you can make some changes to spend some quality time? Maybe instead a bar night with buddies every week, take two of those nights on the month to make a movie night with your own kid-friendly elixirs. Those of us Dads that aren’t in our children’s households, what recourse do you have to make some change for quality time? What arrangements can you make to connect? They don’t have to be big, they can be small, but all that matters is that those arrangements are SOMETHING, and time of any kind is something.

In the era of apps and FaceTime, there’s a myriad number of ways that we can connect to loved ones, and children are no different. Let us create our own fatherly spaces to make inroads to new connections with our children, to remind them that we love them. Let us show our consistency with creativity. Let us make a new commitment to be better paternal providers of love, high spirits, and good will.

But, commitments need markers, and CoolxDad is marking the summer of 2021 with a commemorative capsule collection. This special edition t-shirt pack with two designs meant to proudly signify not only your connection to this special community, but also your connections to the little ones to whom you pay allegiance. You can now shop the F A T H E R H O O D collection exclusively at coolxdad.com.

With your purchase, we can obtain the resources needed to continue the fight to eliminate the fatherless children dilemma within our communities.

 

Written by Sandy Dover

Photos by Fred Agho