On The Daddy Tip # 15

When I first started working in law enforcement I was afraid to use the radio. I had no trouble patrolling my zone(s), pulling people over or just talking to folks. I just didn't like the radio. Partly it was because I think my voice sounds stupid. Mostly it was because there is no way to get on the radio in a polite way. You just wait for some dead air and start talking. Sometimes you can get out what you need to say and sometimes you get stepped on. Either way, you just do it. When I first started, my department was just stopping the use of coded language. We didn't use ten-codes, we used our local ordinance codes. We had 5-5, 5-7, 4-2, 4-7, 4-1 and others. Only problem with that was the code book had been revised and the numbers changed. New people like me got the new books and, unless you could find a senior person to teach them to you, were lost in the dark about the old radio terminology. Thirteen years later I still don't know which is which for 5-5- and 5-7; one is alcohol and one is marijuana. And here's an anecdote: I once had to respond to backup a guy who had caught a guy doing 4-2 activity. I didn't know whether to go lights and sirens so I drove lit up halfway and dark the rest of the way. Turned out, 4-2 is "deviant sexual behavior" between two men. All of this round-a-bout filler crap brings me to my Tip o' the day: Use regular English around your kids and talk to them like they are adults. They might not understand everything but, when they don't, have a teachable moment and tell them to ask their mother. Wife and I decided, long before daughter was born, to not hide what things are called. That's right, my two year-old knows that girls have vaginae and boys have penises. She does not realize, however, that it is not good social etiquette to ask my wife if the man in line in front of them at the grocery store has a penis. Nor does she realize that, when Dad is in the shower, it is not okay to ask him where his penis is. Those are the finer points that we must work on.