My Musical Baby and His Ridiculous Dad

As I have said at least twice now, Randy is a great Dad. He loves the kids. He takes care of them while I am at work. He knows exactly which thing will make them stop crying in which situation. He gives them plenty of hugs and attention. Yet he is also good at setting limits and making them stick. He is proud to be a stay at home dad. I would have to say that all around he is awesome. But let me tell you, sometimes I think he is a ridiculous man.

Tonight was one of those times. Super Z loves to play with my flute. He is actually getting to the point where he can make sounds with it. I must say that I am very impressed. But he has always loved music. He has been playing guitars and banging on drums since he turned 1. So tonight we were laying on the bed and he was playing the flute. After a bit he said, " When I get to high school I am going to march." ( He meant he was going to be in the marching band.)

"Oh yeah? What instrument are you going to play? The drums? The trumpet?," I asked.

"The flute.," He answered simply.

I answered, "Well, if you want to play the flute you can. I will let you use mine."

And then Ridiculous steps in, " You need to play the trumpet. You can't play the flute."

Okay, let me lay out the reasons that I thought that was ridiculous.

1) Super Z is four, marching band is many years away. 2) If Super Z wants to play the flute, he will. 3) What are actually the chances that he is going to be a flutist in the marching band? Super Z is a very dirty athletic boy, he is just as likely to be playing ball as playing in the band.4) What difference does it make either way?

I understand that mostly girls play the flute, but boys do too. I am sure that those boys get ragged for it, but I hope that my son will always be who he is without worrying about what other people think. The point is, I don't care what he does or what he plays as long as he is a happy kid.

I know that Randy would not argue with me about this for very long (if the time came that we ever actually had to argue about whether Super Z could play the flute or not). He would realize that I am right. And it wasn't like he was upset or vehement about it or anything. The initial reaction just kills me though. Ridiculous.