Alan decided to start a date night tradition in order to spend one-on-one time with each of his daughters. He let them choose where they wanted to go from a variety of options he had pre-determined he could endure. They usually chose one of those pizza and arcade places with mechanized animals that annoy the adults but delight the children.
In their early years there wasn’t a lot of meaningful conversation between daughter and dad, but it didn’t matter to Alan. For him, the dates were more about spending time together doing something the girls wanted to do.
As the years went by and their recreational preferences changed, the girls began to choose movies, grownup restaurants, horseback riding, bowling, and the like for their date night. Topics of conversation changed, too. They began to share with their dad the problems they were dealing with at school or among their friends. On a few occasions, dates were also a time for Alan to share an important life lesson with them. Those were the times when he felt most connected to his daughters, when he could help them solve their most pressing problems.
As things go, each daughter in her own time eventually reached an age when daddy-daughter dates fell out of favor. Alan, saddened, had only memories of dates past to comfort him when he missed spending fun time with his daughters.
A time came when Alan and his wife drove to the university their oldest daughter attended; they were to accompany her to a parents’ weekend event hosted by her sorority. After enjoying dinner with several of her friends and their families, Alan was surprised by his daughter’s request that he go out on a date with her.
It had been a long while since they had had a date. Alan’s wife knew how much the request meant to him so she encouraged him to go. Soon he found himself in pub where his daughter enjoyed hanging out with her college friends. They laughed, teased one another, and played pool for hours, beating everyone who dared challenge the duo.
Finally, many pool games later and at an hour long after when he would have normally gone to bed, Alan drove his daughter back to her dorm. Before she went inside, they sat in the car to talk just a bit longer. That was when she told her dad how proud she was of him, and had asked for the date because she wanted her friends to know what a great dad she had.
As he sat in the car and watched his daughter walk to her dorm, he realized how tired he was, but at the same time was certain he could have played a few more games of pool had she asked him to.
Alan slept peacefully that night, his heart lifted by the best complement he had received in a long time, and the hope that he wouldn’t have to wait long for his next invitation to a daddy-daughter date.