More Thoughts on (Grand)Fathers

This made me laugh hysterically. Which ought to tell you what my childhood was like...or maybe just what my sense of humor is like.

Conan O'Brien:
I'm one of six children, and when you travel in a pack like that, your early memories of your father all involve discipline. For the longest time, my dad was simply a black-haired arm reaching into the backseat of the car to grab one of us...My father believed in frontier justice. He'd say, "I don't know who broke the clock in the front hall, so you're all going to be punished." It seemed unfair at the time, but now that it has become the basis for our country's foreign policy, I'm starting to think he was on to something.

Now I get to see my daughter with my father, which is hilarious. My father has morphed into this kindly, patient, fun-loving grandfather. The only time he's going to be reaching into the backseat to get at Neve is to hand her a chocolate bunny. It's completely unfair.

Someday my dad will be taking Neve off to the circus and I'll be shouting after her, "You don't get it, kid. In 1974 this guy was Stalin!" Of course, many people say that grandparents get all the fun of parenting with none of the responsibility, but I have my own theory. It has been scientifically proven that testosterone levels in men start falling in their late 20s, so the enforcer we know as kids mellows over time and becomes the kindly, doting grandfather. I'm already a much kinder, more relaxed dad today than I would have been in my 20s.

Of course, my testosterone levels started falling when I was 11, so by the time my daughter is in college I'll technically be her grandmother. Won't that be nice!