It started as late night dinner conversation fodder between my wife and I many years ago. We’d often stop for eggs or pancakes at 1am or some other time of day when we probably shouldn’t have been eating an extra meal. This was a tradition for us (the dialogue and the overeating) as we drove home from concerts so health be damned. I’d ask her ‘what adjectives do you hope to use to describe our kids when they’re older?’ and we’d banter back and forth tossing out words like ‘happy’, ‘independent’, ‘curious’ and ‘unapologetically odd’. Ok, that’s 2 words but still, you get the point.

Nowadays, this is the question I ask of famous dads like Carson Palmer and Lance Gross when I’m interviewing them. It’s a solid question I think, one these guys don’t get asked a lot so it makes them really think instead of going off rote memory.

We recently asked the dads in our community this same kind of question and got back a lot of “happy” answers, as is to be expected. I mean, who doesn’t want their kid to be happy? But here’s a look at some of the other best responses from the rest of the lot.

There was the funny, of course, because we dads are a riot…

Brandon Clark: Batman definitely Batman.

Jonathan Wilkinson: a mime.

Chris Day: A professional wrestler. Anything else is unacceptable.

Aled Lewis: A follower of Life of Dad on Facebook, of course!

Jonathan ‘Melvyn’ Matthews: An Adult. Or happy, I’m good with either one.

Brandon Pearson: Awesomely awesome with all awesomeness.

Matt Peters: A Jedi. Like his father before him.

Carl Kendrick: An international sportsman. Fund my stay in a decent old persons home.

And the serious…

Tim Thompson: I want her to think critically and to question everything.

Anthony Kaleal: Anything they want, but doing it the right way, no shortcuts, take the high road…

Justin S Villarreal: Genuine. So many fake people in this world.

And a few sentimental…

Jonathan Pagan Cruz: My baby girl for life.

Kevin Garand: LOVED. It is very important that kids feel love from there parents.

Nathaniel Champney: A great dad.

What adjective would you love to be able to use to describe your child as an adult? Share it with us on the Life of Dad Facebook page!

*Flickr photo by mojomoomey, shared under Creative Commons license.