I’ve been taking Del to a class every week since last August. For a few months it was a swim class, and during the winter now it is a music class. Do you know the fun thing about music class? We’re all clothed and dry and there is no need for me to navigate a locker room with a baby.
For a few weeks there was one other dad in the swim class, but other than him I have always been the only man in attendance at Del’s classes. In the music class I’m one of only two parents; the other three adults are all caregivers. It seems that most fathers my age made choices in their lives that enabled them to earn more than a babysitter by the time they were 37. I think most mothers did as well. And most 27-year-olds, for that matter.
Kids, don’t go into debt to become an actor.
It’s never been a thing in class that I’m the only dad, as far as I can tell. I was always self-conscious of being the only man (other than the teacher) in a pool with a bunch of moms who had given birth relatively recently. Not that they needed to look any certain way for me, of course, but I just assume that they would have been more comfortable had it been all moms who had just given birth. I’m probably making the universally human mistake of giving my own presence in their lives a little too much weight.
I have an issue being the only man in the music class, and it’s this: I am a hopelessly terrible singer. Three years of voice classes in my aforementioned expensive acting education taught me that I am tone deaf. I also have a very strong voice. I guess it’s like Lenny in Of Mice and Men. Lots of enthusiasm and strength, very little control. Being the only male voice in the room sticks me out like a big detuned sore thumb. However, as they are teaching me, my voice is the most important voice for Del to hear in that room, so it’s crucial that I really give my all to the songs. So if you’re in Midtown in the late morning and you hear something like a wounded cave troll bellowing out “Mister Rabbit Mister Rabbit your ears are mighty long,” that’s just a man doing what he needs to do for his son.
Bloggin Colin 