Hello! So I was hoping you guys might be able to help me out a little here. I am writing a book set two years the MC's daughter dies. At the same time as I am telling his story, every other chapter are snippets from his daughter's life and their relationship. However as I never really had a relationship with my father I am wondering whether it is authentic or not. Would anyone be comfortable sharing good memories they've had with their dad, or little quirks to their relationship, for example where there pet names, or actives that only you and your dad did? Don't worry I won't be copying what you have written and putting it in the book, I just would like a general idea!
I hope the MC doesn't lose his job at the club. My dad used to carry me around facing forward as a little kid because I liked looking around. That's a cute memory for a dad to have.
I have just realised I have mistyped that, it was supposed to say two years after the MC's daughter dies. Thank you very much for sharing, that was sweet of him. I am sorry I am being completely dense, to which club are you referring to?
I used to do sports with my dad as a kid. He gave me no slack and I was usually half-dead after coming back from bicycling, rollerblading, or cross-country skiing with him. Good times...
i had a very close relationship with my father... much closer than my three sisters' due to my dad and i having had equally high IQs and compatible intellects, the same interests, etc.... feel free to email me with specific questions... i'd prefer that to doing so in posts... i'm sorry you could not have known the same with yours... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
Thank you very much for all of your input guys, it is really helpful. When we first meet the girl she is 10, and dies when she is 13.
My dad and I were never really close. But we were closer when I was a kid than we are now. When we were driving home, any time we'd pass roadkill, he'd jokingly suggest picking it up, grilling it, and eating it for dinner -- served with a little ketchup and mustard, course. Sounds a lot weirder saying it out loud. He called me Snicklefritz. My sister was Prepdog. lol And my stepmom is Sparky (from Aladdin -- "Alright, Sparky, here's the deal. You wanna cork the little lady, you gotta be a straight shooter, do ya gottit?") He was single until I was about 7. So he wasn't very good at cooking. We had pot pies for dinner almost every night and buttered toast for breakfast almost every morning. It was a shame when he remarried and we stopped eating our favorite meals. lol That's about all I got. Good luck!
I do not remember much from that age except my father being worried about me... he tried to mold me into being a self-sufficient woman that any militant feminist would be proud of.
I can second terrible nicknames. I was 'Pörsti.' I'm not sure what the English equivalent could be as it doesn't really mean anything in my native tongue either. When I was a baby, he apparently called me his morning star (I was born just before dawn).
@Smoke Z, I have a prominent yet justified fear that I might end up being a dad like that, whether my future kid's a girl or a boy (fingers crossed for the former; I so don't want a son like I was 'cause I actually like having my stuff, you know, not broken). Granted, I don't know what your dad's curriculum entailed, but I can easily picture myself taking the kids along for a mountain hike, to the gym, shooting range, and pool, to do parkour etc. i.e. skills that might come in handy during a zombie apocalypse (it's comin', I tell ya). That would probably go on until they told me they like none of that crap and would rather stay home playing video games or some such. My dad was kinda like that except less flexible; me and my sister had to pick an instrument to play and we trained martial arts with him every day while we were still too young to join a proper martial arts club. I'd say it was ok for the most part, sometimes fun, but sometimes it also really sucked 'cause we didn't have the option to quit, no matter what. Later on (like when we were around 10 or so) we did get to change instruments or add new ones to our repertoire or maybe choose a different martial art / combat sport or add another sport to the list, but quitting still wasn't an option. Then again, while I resented it back then, now I'm actually glad he pushed us hard; if it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't have fallen in love with combat sports or the electric guitar. In hindsight, I guess I'm more thankful than resentful. That's more of a father-son story, but since my sister was a part of our trio of activity, I suppose our stories are similar enough to count for the topic. That's just adorable. If we ever have kids, I pray we'll get a daughter just like you were. I mean, compare and contrast: You were his morning star, this calm, lovely child who liked to sit quietly in a corner and read books. Me? Well, while my mom was in labor (a long one, of course), they were just going from summer time to winter time (daylight saving time), so the hospital clocks were off for an hour, and the nurse jokingly said to my mom that let's hope he's not born during that hour (I was 2 days late already). Guess which hour I picked to come out? Add to that that I was a really loud, fast, and destructive perpetual motion machine, and you get the picture.
lea... believe it or not, 'snicklefritz' was one of my father's favorite nicknames for his girls, too!... when was your dad born?... mine arrived on the scene in 1907... i'm wondering if they were of the same generation, or if the word survived for decades beyond the 40s, when i was one... love and hugs, maia [aka snicklefritz/chick/et al.]
My dad was born in the late 60s. I have no idea where he got the name (if someone called him that or what) but it stuck for a long time. lol He always had really silly nicknames for everyone. Him and my mom also called me Ballerina Baby when I was born, because I was breached and my legs stuck straight up for a long time after I was born. lol Oooo! They called me Two Ton, too, because I was huuuggeee. lol As I started losing all my baby fat, it went to One Ton, then Half Ton. Eventually it just disappeared all together. He also used to say he loved me more than alllll the stars in the sky. Somehow I picked up on it, and when I'd say I love him too, he'd say, "How much?" And I'd have to respond with "More than aalllllll the stars in the sky." It's one of my favorite memories.
My great grandmother used to call me snicklefritz! I had forgot that until reading that just now, one of the few good memories I have of her. That woman was a battleaxe. But she was born in 1914, so pretty contemporary of your father it sounds like.
that my father was older than your greatgrandmother makes me feel beyond ancient!... are you not even a teenager yet?