😕 Go Ask Daddy About Plant Eaters, Color Collections and What Happens if You Cross the Border for College

The questions have begun to dwindle.

The girls just don’t ask as many questions. They have answers. Or, they don’t look to me for them as they once did. This is okay. Seasons change in fatherhood. If they change back, I’ll be ready for that, too.

The list that once pushed 400 is down to 213.

That’s still a lot of Go Ask Daddy. Want to know something? Every single question I’ve answered in this space has genuinely come from my children’s’ mouths. If they never ask another, I’ll have enough for 42 more Go Ask Daddy posts.

🎥 Go Ask Daddy About Movie Casting, Data Blasting, and Bald Britney

That’s me in that picture, getting ready to take on the short-track at Hickory Motor Speedway, back in the day.

I’ve fallen behind on all the Star Wars movies.

It pains me to say that but also doesn’t. Camdyn didn’t give the most glowing review of Solo: A Star Wars Story. What we have feared for years seems to have come true: Disney might just be stinking up our story.

I didn’t ask for details.

We’ll see, though. When Disney first got ahold of Star Wars, I was apprehensive. I ended up crying in the theater! (My girls noted that all the other old dudes in there also cried.) I don’t want to cry sad tears again for the loss of the story I grew up with.

Go Ask Daddy about follicular properties, sweet debates 🧁, and milestones for our beautiful game

Sometimes, the kids don’t believe me.

I used to be a football player. And I used to have big hair. Not really at the same time, though. My football days, I was clean cut. Didn’t even have a mustache. It was the 80s, not the 70s. And I didn’t have long hair until high school.

Anyway, the coach and dad they see now has stories.

Not Superman stories, mind you. But stories. In middle school, they called me Speedy. Okay, it wasn’t the school team. It was intramurals. All the real players played real football. But all things being equal … I stood out in the field.

🙅🏽‍♂️ Go Ask Daddy about cream science, tequila compliance and the history of stinky schools we hate

My girls always knew dad’s hands were warm.

It’s a good thing when you’re a dad. As they’ve gotten younger, they don’t come to me for hand-warming much anymore. Maybe they outgrew it. Maybe they gained the gift of warming coils in their hands like dad’s – who knows?

In junior high, a girl once touched my hand during lunch.

I know, right? It’s true though. She couldn’t get over how soft and smooth my hands were. That was cool and all. She was touching my hand, for Boy George’s sake! But then teenage me began to wonder if she took it as a sign of weakness.

#AtoZChallenge: U is for using up all your subs (Go Ask Daddy)

I can’t help it.

When the kids say something about subs at a soccer match, my mind goes to steak and cheese. Or turkey and avocado. It’s just how it is and I can’t change it. But the distraction is mostly temporary.

When I sub a kid into a game, it gives us a bit of a forum to talk that we don’t normally get.

You’re my mom’s favorite coach, but not my dad’s one girl told me. A new player told me how nervous she was to get in. Hayden didn’t spend a lot of time there, but as she waited to go back in after getting her first yellow card, we both tried not to snicker too loud.

#AtoZChallenge: O is for old people, other police dogs and one business day (Go Ask Daddy!)

My kids are savage when it comes to my age.

They’ve been rounding up for years. When my hair thinned just a hair, they declared me bald. They joke that my social security number is 47. Thing is, I’m probably the youngest 40-something dad among any of their friends.

The best old-guy insult came by one of Hayden’s friends.

\We’ll call her Anabel. I sat with Anabel and Hayden in an amphitheater at Carowinds theme park. We were visitors with the choir and band, I think. We were waiting for the show about dinosaurs to begin – and they were running late.

#AtoZChallenge: I is for I Shot the Sheriff, Item Lifting and other Illegal activity

This would have been a cooler shot with a better phone. #androidlife #backintheday

The Is have it on Go Ask Daddy today.

It’s time for the letter I in the #AtoZChallenge. I picked three questions with the letter I from the list. They’re also the oldest I questions, so it’s nostalgic. These were probably asked at least six years ago. There are some hilarious early questions in there.

For example: Are jesters slaves to the queen?

Good one. Can’t wait to tackle that one. I suspect it might have arisen as we talked about my employment options at one point. I so was born in the wrong era, y’ all. Ever get that feeling? At least I can still blog about it.

🇺🇸 Go Ask Daddy about native communications, stars and stripes, and soccer stars

Just a ‘trooper canning Js. On a bridge. In Gatlinburg.

The questions are anonymous.

I mean, you can narrow it down to three girls who look a little like me. But as far as which kid specifically asked a specific question? There’s protection for the innocent. As you’ll see comes into play for No. 3 today.

The questions come in droves in everyday life.

For the unfamiliar: I try to track every question my girls ever ask me. Sometimes they’re easy (How come you can’t push a receiver in football?) and sometimes they ain’t (What does a Skye Terrier look like?) There’s about 250 at the moment on the list.

Go Ask Daddy about family dynamics, flavoring coloring and manned Martian missions

Vinyl is making a comeback. What happened to all my Hall & Oates albums?

I grew up uncle rich.

I’m not talking rich uncles. I’m talking men who took the role to heart. I want to recognize each here with a little shoutout. I love them all (and my aunts too).

Go Ask Daddy about firehouse monitoring, NFL turkeys and mashed up chickpeas

Here’s to sea glass, sunsets and sales in beachside gift shops.

The comeback is complete.

I haven’t done a Go Ask Daddy post since … the last time the Rams were in the Super Bowl. Or the Patriots didn’t cheat. That was 1776. Anyway, it’s been a while, and the girls’ questions are different now, but I still have 250 unanswered waiting on a spreadsheet.

Here’s how it works.

I select five questions each week randomly. They come from a trove of inquiries my girls ask. I capture them on bits of paper or in my phone note-taking app or in sharpie on my skin. (Not really, that last one.) Most I forget if I don’t write them down immediately.