Well friends, I had an interview yesterday for a job that I would really love to get. It will start me in a new industry and career path that I’ve wanted to break into for a while now. That is only part of our story thought, because I know most of you aren’t interested in my career aspirations and that isn’t the point of the blog after all.

No, this is the story of how my girls set me up for success. I usually like to think that I have a decent sense of style especially when it comes to “suiting up” to borrow a phrase from Neil Patrick Harris. However, this confidence in my ability to pick out the right suit for the occasion sputters out before interview time.

Normally I would ask Mrs. Rex and let her pick out the right shirt and tie for the occasion. (As also she is the one currently in the business world she’s also more up on the current expectations of these things as well.) Unfortunately for me, I thought, she WAS working from home but on a call with her boss and couldn’t break away. Now, me being the creature of consensus that I am wanted an opinion and that left me one option (which if you were familiar with her toddler clothes picking habits would be terrifying to you) my oldest…Thing 1.

She’s been conducting school from home and was in “Specials” which I guess is what the rest of us would have just called non-academic classes (PE, health, art, music…you get the drift). I called her over and she came running in. I showed her three choices of ties to go with my suit expecting to get a simple “Choose that one, daddy!” I should have known better.

In addition to commenting on liking the shirt I chose she immediately grabs the last tie I thought she would choose, unrolls it and holds it up to my shirt. She looks very intently at it and says (and I quote), “Well this one is pretty, and it has purple and white and black and pink, and a nice design…” I was ready to agree and thank her when she threw out the punchline “I have a great sense of fashion!” Friends, she isn’t wrong, but I could not have drawn up a more perfect interaction to describe her personality.

Trying not to laugh I thanked her and sent her skipping back to Specials. I tied the tie in my usual half Windsor knot and went off to my interview brimming with confidence. Now, this would seem like a good end to a story, but of course you know me by now and that couldn’t be the end of the tale.

At the interview my potential employers were dressed a little more casually than I was (I don’t mind this in the slightest) and told me they should have let me know that I didn’t have to “Suit up!” (Thanks NPH!) I had to let them know I was pretty much obligated to show up in one anyway, which they may have found odd. As we were approaching the second half of the interview I was asked to describe myself as if we had met on the street and I started how I normally would, “I am girl dad who puts family first, loves to grill and pursue my hobbies, constantly learning and enjoying being in my girls lives.”

The interviewer noted that they liked that I started with I was a girl dad. That left a segue for me explain my earlier suit comment. I recounted the story of Thing 1 picking out my accessories and her verbatim comment. Often I think the girls do a better job of humanizing me than I do myself, and I am thankful for that and for them. So, for this episode I think Thing 1 did a pretty good job of making me look Pretty Fly for a Suit and Tie. Thanks love bug!

-Daddicus Rex