The more things change the more they stay the same

We are members of the Caldwell Idaho YMCA this is a great place with a huge indoor pool, gym, track and lots of activities.  Tonight they offered a Daddy Daughter Date night.  My daughter Payton and I attended.  We made crowns, had our picture taken, ate dinner, decorated cookies and danced the night away.  This was for dads and their daughters 3-11 years old.  There were probably 150 people there and we had a wonderful time.

This is one of the few times I have been to a public dance since I got married and quit going to young singles adult dances.  I was shocked how as soon as music is turned on and you are supposed to start dancing how many adult men completely shut down.  All of the dads fell into one of these categories:

Sexy and I know it: There was one of these.  He could dance.  He was less concerned about dancing with his daughter as we were performing for everyone else.  In fact I never saw him with his daughter he might have been a party crasher.

I am too scared to dance:  There must have been 30 men standing on the side of the dance floor with their daughters not dancing.  The girls wanted to and they were keeping themselves busy playing with balloons but some of them never actually made it onto the dance floor.

Rhythm, what’s that?  Ok this is where I fall.  I can’t dance; I never have been able to.  I can walk slowing in a circle rocking back and forth to  a slow song with the best of them.  I do have confidence and am completely comfortable looking stupid on the dance floor.  However until tonight I did not realize how bad I did look.  This is all thanks to the dance being held in a room with a floor to ceiling full wall mirror.  So as long as I “danced” with my back to the mirror I was fine.

I can’t dance so let’s do stupid tricks:  I have established I can’t dance, however I do try to blend in with the those that can and those like myself who don’t care and just fake it.  Is there some rule that getting on someone’s shoulders during a slow dance is not appropriate? Or having some sort of contest sliding across the floor on your knees is ok at a dance.  Is it just me or does this seem wrong?

We are here, but really want to be left alone: Ok in a young singles adult dance this is the couple that met last week and got engaged earlier that day so they slow dance to every song off in a corner someplace.  I have a family member that did that several times… with a different fiancé each time.  At a daddy daughter date that would be awkward and a little creepy.  But there were a few people who were giving each other their undivided attention.  One dad was teaching his daughter how to dance, another was taking turns dancing between his two little girls, and it was very sweet.

All in all it was a great night.