Better

I swore I would never blog about children or animals, at least not my own. Children rarely do the funniest things, and even those things are rarely funny to anyone unrelated to them. Here is where I break my promise.

I am reading Atul Gawande's Better: A Surgeon's notes on performance. Gawande identifies "three core components for success in medicine - or any endeavour that involves risk and responsibility" These are: diligence, do right, and ingenuity. Simple.

On Saturday I took my seven year old out for a Pizza. She is overtaking her older sister in the race to adolescence, and even during the act of ordering I did something to annoy her. I asked her how I could be A Better Dad. In the style of Norman Foster, she scribbled all over a serviette, and thrust it at me.

Be Better

1. don't. tell. other. people. what. I. said.
2. don't. say. err. in. the. middle. of. the. sentence.
3. don't. do. disgusting. burps. and. farts. and. poos. and. breathing.
4. don't. tell. us. off.
5. don't. make. us. do. work.
6. don't. make. us. walk.
7. don't. eat. and. slurp. your. food.

I guess I now know my seven deadly sins. I am just trying to work out how many of these I can do at the same time.