DAD BOSS TAKES A STAND, (with wife’s approval)

Every dad boss worth a damn had the right woman for back up. Is it true? Sift through the sands in your hourglass for the outstanding influencers in your life.

Go ahead, I’ll wait . . .

If you remember that teacher, that coach, that neighbor, for their insight on situations good and bad, men who reacted instinctively when others waited, hesitated, considered this, considered that, put ’em on the dad boss list.

Moms know the list secret, the special code words: “If you don’t do something, I will.”

Here’s what I’m talking about:

French Disconnection

A man in France, a Frenchman, takes his family to the lake for a ski party weekend with all of their French friends.

When the last gorgeous French day ends he waves to his wife who is backing up a trailer hooked to their Peugeot. She jumps out of the car to help, the brakes slip, and the voiture slides down the launch ramp with its engine idling, then goes under.

Mari et femme watch in wine drenched amazement.

Lot Owner: This will cost you thousands of euros for my loss of service, technical tow truck, and I don’t know what else.

The husband talks to his wife, then to the lot owner.

Husband: Loss of service? How much will it cost you when the Environmental Agency takes samples of your lake for hazardous waste, like whatever’s coming out of my leaky Renault, and shuts you down for the season? No one wants that, so skip la connerie and get my car out of this beautiful lake before it turns into un puisard.

Dad Boss Gator Vacation

A Croatian man takes his wife and kids on a vacation they’d planned for all year.

These were hardy people who loved camping together. This time it rained and rained and rained some more and forced them to stay in their tents.

It had happened before.

One family rule stood higher than any other, a rule common to campers around the world, the real campers, and it is, “Give it another hour, it’s going to clear up.”

On the third day of downpour the campsite overlord said there was a call from Zagreb.

The family had a pet alligator that a neighbor watched after. Somehow the gator escaped its cage and bit the water line to the utility sink. It ran for five hours. The main floor flooded and sagged, the basement ceilings dropped.

The dad walked back through the cloudburst and talked to his wife who was shivering in the tent. Then he returned to the phone. They had two more days of vacation.

The husband called his neighbor with insurance numbers and walked back to his campsite. The next two days broke clear and warm and got better with each hour.

The kids celebrated.

Dad Boss Extraordinaire

Whether you know a dad boss, or you are an actual specimen of dad bossiness, you know how it works:

You want to look good in front of the kids, but most of all look good in front of the wife with the kids in the room.

A boss I knew almost made it to the last cut. He was a department director for his company, a man groomed to be ‘the face’ of the business in ten years, or so.

His competition was a well connected local who eyed the same prize; if he became ‘the face’ then he might stop feeling guilty for not using his gifts on a bigger stage.

‘The face’ of an organization needs an outgoing personality, one that says “if I can make something better by showing up, I’ll show up.”

When the director showed up, he showed up big. He was a big guy, married with kids. He took advice from people who knew that it was always better to buy an old Mercedes than a new Toyota if they were at the same price.

If the price of a vintage suit, along with tailoring, was comparable to a new suit, going vintage was his style.

He showed up looking like a Scottish baron with his growing family in tow.

Then it all stopped.

He became suddenly and irreversible ill.

The wife and kids in the front row of his memorial showed the effects of a dad boss. She would carry on, they would carry on, together.

Through the slide show and video, the piano and songs, they braced for entering a world without their dad boss.

Their secret? The Mom Boss.

Stay tuned.