Slarky

I have been really amazed at how much my daughter has changed my life.  It has been an interesting journey of learning about her and seeing a reflection of myself in her.  She is only six, but these last six years have been life changing, and I am really looking forward to being part of her life for the rest of mine.  The latest experience we are having is trying to come up with a name for her new puppy, and it has been quite an adventure.

The funny thing is that at her age, she doesn’t necessarily get the gender stereotypes when it comes to names.  In our case, she is trying to find female dog names that would work for her new puppy, but sometimes her suggestions miss the mark.  For example, I have had to tell her that “Brad” doesn’t work as a girl’s name, so we have had some good discussions about names.

I have been trying to steer her in the right direction, but I don’t want to come right out and give her a name for her dog.  I think that naming anything is an important process, and I want her to make the decision – not me.  I know that my wife and I really struggled to come up with the perfect name for our daughter, but with a little perseverance, we did make a great choice.

My wife wanted to take another route and have us come up with the name, but I really saw this as an opportunity for our daughter to make an important decision.  Sure, she is only six years old, but giving her some responsibility is a good choice.  I can really tell that she is taking her task seriously, and though it might take her a little longer, I think that in the end, she will really appreciate being the one with the duty to come up with a name.

We have decided not to rush her in her name choice, but we don’t want her to take too long either.  She has until the end of the week to come up with a name, and I am really looking forward to hearing what she chooses.  I just really hope it is something great – I don’t want our dog to be called “Muffy”.