My two-year-old daughter clings to my husband's leg everytime he leaves the house.
It's not a 'don't leave' kind of cling - it is a long and considered hug (and the leg area is just right for her height).
It always causes me and my husband to exchange looks - looks that say 'she is amazing' and I know it is a very special ritual for him.
I understand this little bond because I get a tiny little twinge in my heart everytime it happens. It's because I used to do exactly the same with my dad.
It is a really special thing and I wonder if my little girl will watch her own children doing the same as their daddy leaves for work (or more specifically to the shop to buy mummy an emergency Dairy Milk).
These shared moments are beautiful and bittersweet.
We are no longer the little girls we used to be and although I would give anything to fling my arms around my dad again - there is such joy in seeing these moments recreated in our own little families.
It's prompted us, here at MummyPages, to compile a list of some of the more relatable moments we shared with our dads that we see our children do now:
1. Horsey
My husband is still a learner horsey and still goes a little too fast for my liking but watching my little girls wobble gleefully on their dad's back as he crawls around the sofa is completely adorable. We used to do exactly the same and even taught my own dad-horsey to rear up as we shrieked in delight. These are some seriously precious memories that are happening all over again.
2. Sweets on a Sunday
Sundays in our childhood home were pretty much the same for my whole life. After mass, we would go for a cycle with my dad (clearly to give my mum a break from five children) to the local park. On the way home, he'd always stop for the papers and we would get our comics (Beano, Bunty and Mandy) and a treat - (usually Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons, an Orange Split or Choc Ice).
Now, Sundays in our house are pretty similar - the only difference is the comics because they cost about €75,000 in the shops. We still get the same treats and scooters have been substituted for the bike ride. I love that my children are sharing part of my childhood.
3. Mowing the grass
Just the other evening I had a pang of memory as I watched my children chase my husband around the garden as he mowed the grass. What is it about the noise of the machine, the smell of petrol and freshly cut grass and the delight of playing on the green carpet left in his wake?
Pure magic.
These smells and sights bring memories flooding back of my own childhood and of my dad cutting our grass as we danced and cartwheeled nearby.
Tying up these strands of joy that thread from generation to generation is powerful and beautiful, and I plan to keep on creating these shared sweet moments with my little ones for years to come.
