My children are no longer at primary school.
It therefore marks the end of the handcrafted keyrings, ties, photo frames and t-shirts that I always faithfully received as Father's Day gifts.
Sorry to hear that.
Not that I always believed what was written on the homemade gifts. Politically correct sentiments about being the best and kindest father and so on.
What nonsense.
I don't know, but I think children learn to lie very well at school.
Until your child goes to primary school, you can still convince them that Dad can do anything.
But as soon as they are at school, they lose that idea very quickly.
Dad can't do everything.
Dad doesn't know everything.
The most common comment my daughters make to me is: ‘childish, you know!’. But perhaps that's more down to me.
In any case, there was quite a lot of dishonesty in all those Father's Day presents: there were often things on them that my children, I believe, didn't really mean.
Now that the children can choose a gift themselves (and no longer one that the teacher has thought of), they sometimes come up with unexpected things.
I had a DNA test yesterday.
What?
Are they not sure that I am their father?
Fortunate. It's not that kind of test.
It is a test to find out what your genetic ethnicity is.
Am I from the Netherlands?
Do I have ancestors from other parts of the world?
That's quite nice to know. For my children too, by the way.
Do you yourself have an idea where you come from?
You can find that out.
But the question you're heading towards is perhaps even more important.
If you need a car with that, I would be happy to help you with that!
