If scent is the sense with the strongest connect to memory, what will your kids remember about you? I don’t think I have a signature scent, but there is no time like the present to imbedding some olfactory fatherly memories. But what should that be? What do I want my kids to remember dad smelling like?
Dad Cologne: Old Spice vs. New
Safe to say the sterotypical dad cologne is Old Spice, especially if your dad was of a certain age. I know I can picture the bottle on my dad’s dresser. A close second would probably be Brut. But those were the scents of dads gone by. Is there a sterotypical cologne for the modern dad? I feel that not only are there more options for today’s dad, but he is probably also more likely to be open to difference scents. I don’t think a dad would be rolling into the office in 1987 smelling like the patchouli his kids got him for Father’s Day or the essential oils his wife picked up at the farmer’s market.
I did get some soap for Christmas – couple bars of Duke Cannon. My daughter asked to smell the pine scented bar. She took a sniff and recoiled. Said it was too strong. I guess there goes my hopes of associating me with a Chrismas tree.
I’ve worn the same cologne since college, but don’t wear it often enough to have a strong association in my kids minds. So I wonder, if other guys out there are as set in their scented ways as I am, are there kids out there who think their dad smell like Curve? Are their dads Bod men? I suspect that may be the case. On more than one occasion, I’ve caught a whiff of Abercrombie floating through the sea of parents picking their kids up after school. I don’t know why, but I found it to be a shocking realization that douchy turn of the millennium bros are fathers now. Also, Lord help me if my daughters date their sons.
My current bottle of cologne is almost empty, and rather than committing to it as my signature scent, I think I’ll take this as an opportunity to move on. Put more thought into this decision this time around now that I know that someday after I’m dead my kids smell it somewhere and get transported back to their childhood. A much heavier decision than trying to smell good for the ladies.
Aroma of My Environment
For many men, their smell is determined more by the environment they live and work in than their choices. Oil, sawdust, coal, chemicals, or any other occupationally based smells that they obsorb. I work from home, so I pretty much smell the exact same as my kid’s own laundry. More likely, their brains have learned to completely ignore my smell because it is exactly the same as their normal habitat. My daily scent has become the odorous equilivent of elevator music. Its there in the background, vaguely recognizable, and completely forgettable. Perhaps I could change the smell of my environment around you by adding calming bolivian rock incense, maybe an autumnally themed scented candle, possibly diffuse some essential oils.
My “home office” consists of a table in the corner of our basement, so if anything I guess I could absorb some of that smell during a workday. I actually don’t mind the dank, but I’m not sure I want my kids to associate the way I smell when they get home from school with old shoes and not enough natual light. I’m think I’m going to get some essential oils.
A Vice Smelling Man
For better or worse (probably worse), a lot of people out there associate the smell of their father with the smell of his drink or cigarette of choice. While smelling like the Marlboro Man does conjure up a certain amount of masculine nostalgia, probably not the way you want to be remembered after you’re gone if you’re gone prematurly because of cancer. I do enjoy a whisky or a gin on the weekends, but definitly not with enough frequency to smell like it outside of a few hours on a Saturday night after my kids are already sleep.
I drink beer around the kids, but opposite of cologne, I don’t stick to just one. I know for a lot of kids their dad’s brand is tied to their memories by look of the can, smell of it, or whatever. I’m sure my perception is skewed because I live in something of a craft beer bubble, but I feel like dad having just one brand of beer is also going the way of dad smelling like Old Spice. In a world where there has never been so many good options for beer, let’s be better than imprinting our kid’s memories with Budweiser.
Also, cologne isn’t the only smell I’ve detected in the air at pick up time in the school parking lot. Sometimes weed is in the air. I get it, it’s legal. There is a dispensary not far from my house. Maybe don’t bake before going to pick your kid up at school though? But for a segment of the current generation of youths, dad smells like OG Kush.
If I was going to smell like one of my habits, the leader in the clubhouse would probably be coffee. I drink multiple cups per day, so odds are if it’s before noon it’s on my breath. Plus we usually grind our own beans so the smell is in the kitchen air. All things considered, if someday my kids walk into a coffee shop, sit down to enjoy a nice pastry and coffee, and suddenly their old man springs to mind – I’ll take it.
Maybe that’s the path to take – coffee and baked goods. Do they make cologne that smells like an apple fritter? Made with real bits of fritter? A soap that smells like birthday cake? Then again, I can’t really say shame on smelling like the Marlboro Man if I go around smelling like diabetes.
More than likely, it isn’t even up to me. My kids will remember what their brains decide to remember. I could find the perfect cologne, wear it every day, and my kids will probably remember the one time I accidently put on women’s deoderant and associate their father with Degree for Women. Such is life.
I Think Therefore I Dad 