The Road to 40 Day 19/365: Helicopter Dad

by | May 29, 2025 | Strawberry-Filled Donuts

Since I became a dad, I’ve always hovered around Vino.

You can call it however you want to call it, but I personally think this is a privilege to watch him do what he does every step of the way.

I take him to school every morning and pick him up from school in the afternoon. On a recent playdate, his friend’s mom asked my why would I trouble myself doing these things?

I told her because I can.

What I didn’t tell her was that it wasn’t trouble for me. It’s something that I appreciate doing. I was a kid once as well, and I made friends quite early in school and in the neighborhood.

My parents both worked, and the three year gap between my siblings was just enough to make us like different things at the time. Hence, I gravitated towards friends and carried that over to adulthood.

Vino is turning eight in July and maybe in about five to six years, he’ll want more time for himself with friends. That’s not a lot of years for me to still be silly with him on camera and holding his hand while we walk.

So yeah, I have to do this thing everyday, but every single day I get to do this is one that I can treasure. We may not always talk, the talks we would have may not always be meaningful or fun, but we’re together.

And that’s what matters to me as a dad.

This day was also football training day for him.

I got to sit down with one of the dads – he’s the second dad and the third parent that I was able to talk to among his teammates.

I like that they are both serious but not pushy about their kids’ training.

For one of the boys, he was a former football player but didn’t want to impose on his kid. Kid eventually liked football, so they decided on putting him into this program.

Other kid is amazing at dribbling the ball that I had to ask if he trained before. Dad said he was training since he was three years old, but this is the first program he got into that allowed him to play competititvely.

First dad just wants his kid to have a sport and is lucky enough that the kid liked football. Other dad just wants his kid to have somewhere to channel his energy. What we all had in common was that we wanted our kids to be happy with whatever they do.

For the first time since we started this thing, I was more vocal to the kids while I’m on the sideline. I was whispering “pass, pass, pass” to the kid who never passes, but only because the two other dads were doing the same thing.

I gave Vino some pointers on goalkeeping (wow, expert!) and let him watch a couple of games so that he gets an idea of how he should play.

Everytime he saves a ball, he would look to me proudly and give me a thumbs up to tell me that it worked. During his time as the keeper, he split time between the two teams. He conceded two goals and saved around 6-8 attempts.

I think he should also be credited for an assist after his goal kick expertly dropped to his forward, who then needed just a couple of touches before kicking it into the goal.

He was then assigned to play in the game, where he kinda looked lost again. He still has to figure this out, even if he keeps saying he wants to play goalkeeper.

There was a free kick awarded to their team and the two “aces” were sent out by coach so that one of the kids could take it. Vino confidently asked for the chance and kicked a rocket to the far left corner.

The ball went over the wall and just out of reach of the goalkeeper’s outstretched hands.

Unfortunately, it hit the post.

It was still an amazing shot though. He has a good kick to him when the ball is set, now, it’s just a matter of him doing the same thing to a moving ball so that he can use it in the game.

I think it’s going to take some time. After all, this is the first time that Vino is playing organized football.

Thankfully, I’ll be around to hover around him as he develops his game.

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