LESSON #5: I Have a 1980's TV Dad

I don’t need a Buzzfeed test to tell me that my father is a 1980’s TV dad.

The loving, caring, supportive yet goofy and fun father figure of every single 1980’s sitcom was what I thought all fathers were like. In my mind, those sugary scripted comedies might as well have been documentaries... that's how realistic that kind of father was to me.   

It took me a while to understand that my father was the exception, and not the norm. My friends often fantasized about being taken into the folds of the Huxtable household or adopted into the Seaver family, even for one day… just so they can experience a father like theirs. It was a yearning I never comprehended.... because, truth be told, I always thought my father could run paternal rings around Steven Keaton. In his sleep. No contest. 

My 1980’s TV Dad... 

picked me up everyday from school, sometimes even dressing up in goofy costumes just for the fun of it;

took me out for donuts for breakfast on days I went to work with him;

attended every single swim meet and cheered at every single race I ever swam in;

carried me to bed whenever I’d fall asleep in front of the TV, careful not to wake me;

danced with us to our favorite pop songs in the lounge room;

learned to play guitar so we can sing along to Kenny Roger’s ‘The Gambler’ together;

searched 15 Video shops to find an old copy of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty when I was sick;

sent me ‘anonymous’ flowers at school on Valentines Day… every year;

took me out on my very first date, and showed me how I deserve to be treated;

didn’t ridicule me when I accidentally smashed the side of his car, even though I know he really wanted to;

drove me to the train station at 5:30am every morning for a year when I was first employed out of University;

is able to both nail AND completely ruin a dad joke at the same time; and

has always supported the decisions I’ve made, even though I know they haven’t been the decisions he would have wanted me to make. 

Though the 80’s are long gone, and I’m now in my 30’s… my father still treats me like his princess. Despite the complications life inevitable brings, I’m comforted and grounded in knowing that I am one of the lucky few to have been blessed with a real-life 1980’s TV dad.