Molly and The Kid

So, my daughter has a daddy who has two modes. There's regular daddy who wears a hat and is ruggedly handsome, and there's pretty daddy who wears a wig and is, well, pretty. Regular daddy is the daddy default setting, and the one that she sees most of the time. Pretty daddy is like a bonus mode, an alternate costume code that you can input and have daddy with pretty hair and cute shoes and makeup. A temporary upgrade if you will. While mostly fun, this has created a kind of strange dynamic in our house. Not for The Kid, who at eight months old doesn't really know there's a difference between daddy and pretty daddy, but for me. I'm starting to get concerned about dressing and if/how all this pretty is going to affect her.

Now, I've mentioned before that I'm a stay-at-home dad. Working at home allows me a ton of opportunity to put on Molly and flounce around the house, which is awesome. What it also means is that I'm pretty daddy a lot since my wife works out of the house and I'm essentially Mr. Mom. The Kid is with me all day, and me in my wig and makeup and heels. She doesn't seem to mind. The first time she saw Molly she did a double take then smiled when she recognized my voice.

I know that as she gets older I'm not going to dress around her, and that my dressing in general will be pretty heavily curtailed. I'm concerned about confusing her, although I'm kind of out, at least to a select few friends, and my wife knows about and is cool with Molly. I'm also concerned about her outing me by accident because, you know, from out of the mouths of babes and all. Mostly I guess I'm worried about damaging her in some deep psychological way by playing dress-up. (This is not to say that I won't find other ways to damage her.) This is something my shrink and I talk about a fair bit, when I'm not gnashing my teeth and beating my breast about my various daddy issues, and she's offered to talk to some colleagues who are child developmental specialists about my issues.

In the long run, probably when she's in high-school or college, I'd like her to know about Molly. If she even wants to that is. 'Til then, it's pretty daddy and regular daddy in heavy rotation until she starts twigging to the difference between men and women. Then, well, I don't know what. Sadly there's no user's manual for kids or crossdressing.