OT Dads, ever get that moment of realization where you start to understand your Old Man?

When the rough words rumble forth from somewhere deep in your gut and in that lingering moment of déjà vu you can hear the old man’s voice like an echo in your ears speaking the same thing so long ago. And the realization hangs like gunsmoke in the air...you’re The Old Man now.

I don’t think it happens so much when your kids are little and sweet. There’s a reason for that, watching them helpless and hapless as they toddle through childhood softens you, the sweet cuddles and kisses and “I love you Daddy.” forms that paternal bond, that memory that keeps you from strangling them when the teenage years hit.

When you walk through the house turning switches saying “every damn light in the house is on! The meter is spinning like a top!”

Or that preternatural sense you develop that lets you detect the slightest change in the thermostat.

Like there is a predetermined set of phrases that are just packed neatly away in your brain and when those Dad moments happen they just pop out as natural as if you’ve said them a thousand times before, even if they’ve never left your lips.

“You’ve always got an excuse don’t you boy.”

And when you hear yourself say them that long forgotten teenage you deep inside hears them, but instead of thinking that he didn’t know anything, you realize The Old Man had you pegged.

Ones like this


What other Dad phrases do you find yourself saying without realizing that you’ve heard them before?


And when it hits, do you call up your Old Man (if you’re lucky enough to be able), and just tell him “I finally get it. Thanks Dad.”?