Daddy Clay: If you're a dad with a kid over
18 months of age, the piece of gear that we're talking about today is an absolute essential.
And it's a classic. The humble kite. Kite flying seems obvious as a winner for
a father/child activity. What could be better? It gets everybody out of the house and interacting
with the natural world. There's lot of opportunities for great conversations about things like
tying knots, what keeps a kite aloft. And there's also something that's just naturally
mesmerizing and wonderful about watching a kite. Now keeping a cheapie like this little
plastic triangular kite in a closet is obviously an easy thing to do but really, this isn't
gonna be very good for multiple uses. And that's why I think it's important to invest
in a good kite. I particularly love airfoil kites. Now these kites can typically be had
for less than 20 bucks. They're made of sturdy ripstop nylon. There's no pieces to lose.
And they store in these little stuff sacks so it's easy to store, toss them into a beach
bag, or into the back of the minivan. Now you can get a kite like this on Amazon, and
usually at a good independent toy store. At about the same $20 price point, you can pick
up one of these stunt kites. It's also made of durable nylon and it's got two handles
that allows you to maneuver it. Now these are exciting, particularly to older boys,
but you definitely lose some of the zen factor. Now, if you really want to be a kite geek,
you can go for one of these large format airfoils. It's the same design, except much bigger.
This one's about 30 square feet. The problem is these are more for the adults than for
the kids. They really pull. If you've got a breeze that's more stout than say 10 miles
per hour, it's gonna carry away your little kid like Curious George with his balloons.
Once my daughter even lost control of a little airfoil like this one. She came to the door
absolutely undone, tears flowing down her face. She was handing the kite over to her
friend when they let go and it flew away. But right behind her, came her friend Katie,
and she looked up and she said, "It's still flying." We go outside and sure enough, there
it is. 500 feet up in the sky, a tiny little scrap of rainbow. And I know that this day
is about to be saved by SuperDad. All I have to do is find a bright blue ring like this
one, wedged in a tree somewhere. On the afternoon of the third day while I'm at work, the wind
dies down. And I convince myself that it will now be easy to find the kite in the canopy
of trees in our neighborhood. But after two more hours of neck craning, I realize that
what I'm now looking for is a metaphor. What is this kite trying to teach me about my desire
to be a SuperDad? About the limitation of will when applied to a problem? I'm eating
dinner with a family under a funk of defeat, when someone's at the door. Again, it's Katie
and she says, "It's in our tree." And as I'm clamoring on to my neighbor's roof, I realize
that I've slipped a bond and I need to consciously remember not to risk my life. With the help
of Katie's dad hauling down a limb, and the use of a tree trimmer, I'm finally able to
reel in the kite. I feel like a quarterback in the middle of a ticker tape parade winning
Super Bowl Sunday. So, what's the takeaway here? Flying a kite with your kids can be
a simple pleasure, or a complex metaphor, or both. But maybe, if you want to be a SuperDad,
your cape might look like this.