Man Shower

You have all been to one I’m sure. The cutesy little party with silly games and pastel wrapped presents. The mom-to-be in the middle of the room opening up onesies and bibs with things like “Momma’s Boy” or “I heart Guts”. The baby shower is part of the American fabric and tradition to sometimes to be enjoyed but often endured as a rite of passage into motherhood. Well there doesn’t seem to be a father’s equivalent. I know that some couples do a joint shower but who are we kidding, that is for the mom all the way and just a clever way of getting more presents. My friend John and I, in an effort to have our own party, have come up with what we mistakenly called the “Man Shower”

The first question of course was “why in God’s name would you call it a man shower?” and that is a great question. The whole thing conjures images of hairy over-weight men in towels that are two small and nobody wants to see that, least of all John and myself. I can only plead temporary insanity with the title, as it was the first thing that came to my head when I was asking another father if he was going to make it to our event. John was both horrified and hysterical when he heard what I called it and try as we might to change the name it has stuck. The only thing to do now is embrace it and move on.

While we are not interested in the games and silly presents we are interested in having something that marks this time in our lives. Something akin to climbing on to our chairs and yelling out for all to hear, take notice, there is something special here, something different and we want to recognize it and celebrate it. So we gathered up all of the fathers that we know and love in the Indianapolis metro area and invited them to Deano’s with a simple proposition: If you give us good, practical advice and share with us the things that you wish you knew when you became a father we will give you beer. Mmmmm beer!

Women are so much better at offering up and accepting random advice and sharing wisdom on just about anything. As men we need to be a little more intentional and tonight at Deano’s is John and I being intentional. Bring us you words of wisdom, your funny anecdotes, and your tried and true processes that you have learned and we will give you tall frothy mugs of oat soda. The tough part for me is that a number of the guys that I would like to hear from (Bing, Esse, Mark B, Keith, Allen, Rob, BenO, Jeff, Kyle….) are not in the Indianapolis Metro area. So I can’t offer you beer in exchange for your pearls but I would still like to hear from you. If you are reading this and your name appears above please help me out. If you’re a father and your name is not above it is a horrible oversight that can be chalked up to not enough coffee and the early hour and I would like to hear from you as well.

So tonight we will have our Man Shower and I will be prepared with note pad, cash from the corner ATM, and ears to hear what will be said. I am excited about tonight. It seems special to me, it seems some how other.