Our first parenting dilemma!

Though I've only been a parent for 11 days, I've learned that parenting is all about teamwork. Yuki and I try to split the work load as evenly as possible -- we both change diapers, we both console Mika when she's crying, we trade late-night shifts when Mika won't go back to sleep, etc.

But there are times when one of us is better suited for a parenting task than the other. Yuki, for example, is the superior breast feeder. (I gave it the ol' college try after Mika was born, but the hospital staff politely asked me to let Yuki take over after Mika dropped 12 ounces in less than a day.) I think that's nature's way of saying that there are certain life lessons and important teachings that clearly fall to one of us to impart and not the other.

I'm the last person in the world, for example, who should teach Mika to dance... or speak Japanese... or wrap a gift... or open a bag of potato chips (Yuki once patiently explained to me that the bag should be delicately opened to avoid tearing the edges or damaging the chips inside).

When it comes time to teach Mika to hit a sand wedge out of a green-side bunker, however, we both agree that I'm her guy. (While I can teach Mika how to get out of a sand trap, I'm going to have to find someone with a much better golf game to teach her how to avoid them in the first place.)

But there's a least one area where Yuki and I don't see eye to eye: teaching Mika to tie her shoes. I'm a big believer in the "bunny ears" method -- a tried and true method passed down to me by my father when I was a young lad. Unfortunately, my mere suggestion that Mika should follow in our footsteps makes Yuki cringe. Apparently, she thinks my dad and I are the only two adults in the modern world who still make two big loops when we tie our shoes. (Not so: according to this random blog, there are least seven other adults who subscribe to the bunny ear method).

In search of a solution to our parenting dilemma, I conducted some extensive internet research. Thankfully, I stumbled on the "No 1 ranked shoelace site on the internet." It turns out there are 17 different ways to tie your shoes, including a "revolutionary" method that appears to solve our dilemma: the Ian Knot. Not only does it combine the traditional method with the bunny ear method to produce "the world's fastest shoelace knot," it also saves wear and tear on the laces. Fast, revolutionary and economical... parenting crisis averted!