Nobody Reads Dad Blogs Anymore

Not long ago I was given the pleasure of encountering the Bloggers Are Narcissists mom…again. If you haven’t had the pleasure or time to read that post let me share a couple of choice excerpts:

“Are you coaching soccer this year Jack?” I nodded my head and asked if he was. “I am. We have a really good team this year, I think we’ll be undefeated.”  That is the kind of talk that makes me laugh. I probably shouldn’t have responded but the surgery to remove the filters from my mouth was successful. “I have always wanted to be the coach of an undefeated team of eight year-old girls.”

and

“Really I could write one hell of a post about being targeted by the mean girl collective.

It would give me a good excuse to tell you about how I told one of the husbands that I am not intimidated by a “lick it around the edges girl” and her husband “ride me Sheldon.” But as you can see I don’t need an excuse to work that into the story nor do I need to fabricate a reason to tell you that he told me that some people are fucked and others are fuckers. If I did I would have to relate the entire tale of my snottiness including the part where I told him that I don’t engage in pissing contests with men who don’t wear an extra large condom.

Sadly that has to be among the worst insults I have ever been given the opportunity to use. Really, it is embarrassing and I should strike that from the public record.”

“Nobody reads dad blogs anymore.”

Don’t ask me what led to this proclamation because I didn’t ask. I don’t think the woman has a clue that I am a blogger and I see no reason to tip her off and it is not because I am afraid of her opinion or any repercussions either. I just don’t like her and have no interest in spending more time with her than I have to.

Still I must admit that I was mildly curious what dad blogs she may or may not have been reading. I say may or may not because I am not sure if she can read.

I am not a professional but my guess is the Bloggers Are Narcissists mom hasn’t figured out there is no correlation between IQ and how much money you have in the bank. Nor has she realized yet that she is a big fish in a small pond and that outside of her bubble she has very little influence.

Of Fathers And Daughters

The reason I know her is because there was a time when our children attended the same school and played on the same soccer team. I won’t bore you with the long sordid tale about how this went but I’ll say that it grinds on me sometimes because I feel like my daughter was mistreated.

It grinds on me because it happened when I was gone and that is hard for me.

The move to Texas was absolutely the right thing  to do. It was important, necessary, significant and I have no regrets about having done it. In the short term it was hard but in the long term we’ll see great benefits from it.

However it meant that when the nasty mom and her cohorts came down on my daughter I wasn’t around to help manage things. That is not to say no one stood up for her because her mom and grandparents did.

I have no doubt about them doing a good job or of their being fierce because I was part of the email communications that went back and forth.

But I also know that her former coach is both a chauvinist and a prick. It might not have changed things but if I had been face to face with him…

Or maybe it is a good thing I wasn’t. I teach my children about the importance of working things out calmly and civilly so maybe it’s good they didn’t see me tell him how little I think of him.

Fathers look out for their daughters and their sons. It is important for me to make sure my kids know I have their backs…always.

But Maybe It is True That Nobody Reads Dad Blogs

Had a short conversation with my son the other day about some things that are happening at school. He tells me about how some of the kids talk about what is normal and what isn’t.

It leads to a conversation about how much of our perception of what is normal is fueled by where and how we grow up. It is so easy to get caught up in our lives and forget that what we think is routine may not be that way for others.

My experience shows it happens with both adults and kids.

The point is we tend to classify normal as being the habits and practices of the people we spend the majority of our time with. If those people read blogs and talk about it we might think everyone does.

Same is true if they don’t.

Maybe it is self serving for me to say so, but in my bubble dad blogs are active, vital and popular. But don’t tell the Bloggers Are Narcissists mom that because I’d hate to pop her bubble and expose her to reality.