MY JOB

The other night I’m reading Arden a book before bed called, “I Love You All The Time.” It’s one of these “message” books that usually make me want to slit my wrists. In this one, it lets kids know that no matter where you are or how busy you are, you still love them no matter what. We had read the book a million times before, but Arden’s at that age where she’s finally questioning the world around her and that includes things she’s glossed over a million times before. Well we got to a page where the Daddy Bear, in the story, is busy at work, but he assures his little cub that Daddy’s still thinking of him all the time. I was about to turn the page until Arden stopped me and said, “Daddy, do you work?” I replied, “You mean like go to an office?” Arden said, “Yeah, like Mommy.” For a brief moment my head started to spin as the reality of the whole stay-at-home dad, role reversal thing came crashing in on me. I don’t know why it was happening now, since I’ve been living this life for quite some time, but it caught me off guard. I didn’t want to tell Arden that watching her and Alex was my “job.” Because I don’t think of it that way. But then I remembered that I did in fact work so I said, “Well I watch you and Alex during the day and then after you go to sleep I go downstairs to my office and work.” There was a nod and I figured that was the end of the conversation but then Arden looked at me again and said, “What kind of work do you do?” I laughed at the absurdity of the question coming from a four year old, but also because it just seemed so odd that I’ve known everything there is to know about this little person for the past four years and she had no idea what her dad did for a living. So I explained to her that I wrote movies and TV shows. Arden said, “Really?” I said, “Yup. I even wrote some cartoons I can show you sometime.” She said, “You wrote cartoons?” “Yup.” Arden just sat there letting this sink in for a moment. As a screenwriter you never want to describe someone as “thinking” because screenwriting is an active medium, it’s about showing and not telling, but watching Arden think about this one was priceless. You could just see the wheels turning inside her head. She eventually turned to me and said, “Can you help me write a Spongebob episode?” I laughed again and thought about how different the conversation would’ve gone if Jen was reading her the story that night and explained to her that she fired people for a living. I also got a little choked up, thinking about how I would now be able to share my passion with my daughter so I said to her, “I can absolutely help you write a Spongebob. As long as you help draw the pictures.”


Photo: Daddy's cameo in the our Spongebob script, as rendered by Arden.