Father of the Year

I’ve seen enough fathers raise sons who turn out exactly like them—same small thinking, same fear of anything different. They don’t even realize they’re passing it down. It calcifies young, before the kid even knows what’s possible.

Mikki was different. His son got a duplicate birthday gift, so they went to a nearby store to exchange it. Pick whatever you want, he told him. The kid came back beaming with an Arielle Barbie—the Little Mermaid one.

There are two ways a father can react at that moment. He can take the doll away and hand him a truck instead—keep him on the rails. Or he can tell him he’ll always love him, and if he wants to play with a Barbie then he plays with a Barbie.

Mikki chose the second.