Parent of the year? Not so much

The scene: It's early morning. I'm not a morning person. I prefer sleep, or the quiet time when you've just regained consciousness and are lying in a cozy little ball of comforter and dog. I awake to a lovely voice in the distance. It's my wife - who is quite lovely - telling me that our youngest offspring, Noah, is sick and will be staying home today. No surprise there, as he was bottoming out the previous night, the last of all of us to succumb to this nasty cold/virus/ickiness that's already done a couple of cycles through the house.

That's one of the joys of working from home. Child care worries? What child care worries? Just prop the little man up on the couch with a remote control, a stack of DVDs, his Buzz Lightyear comforter and a very sympathetic dog and you're all set.

So just as soon as I get the plan in place, I notice the friendly flashing red light on my BlackBerry. Do I check it before I wake myself up with a glass of juice? Of course I do. Because I'm addicted. And CrackBerry addicts need their little handheld jolt before making the long trip to the kitchen for juice.

It's an interview request. Even better: television. Cool! I love television. It's more fun than...well, having my area rugs steam cleaned. The problem you can see building is this: I'm going to be home alone with an under-the-weather 7-year-old. How can I do an interview?

I quickly discuss my conundrum with my wife. She agrees it makes sense to take him with me if I want to do the interview. Which I do: it's a great topic, a great interviewer and a great producer. A perfect storm of journalistic goodness. Even better, our son thinks it'll be neat to hang out with his dad at the television station.

So when it comes time for the interview, I load my pyjama-clad little man into the wondervan and off we go. He falls asleep a couple of blocks before we get to the TV station ( London's A Channel), but is easily awoken when we get in. Dwayne meets us at the front and takes us in. I can see his eyebrows go up at the sight of a kid in skateboard-themed jammy bottoms and a big winter hat with ear flaps, holding his dad's hand and trying not to trip as he takes in the wonder of this place. But Dwayne doesn't skip a beat, introducing himself to Noah and inviting him into the control room to watch me as I get set up in the adjacent studio.

It doesn't take long for me to do the interview - it rocked! - and thank Dwayne for being so generous with our son. Noah seems to forget that he's sick as he happily parades back down the long hall and down the stairs into the lobby. We're surrounded by decades of local television memorabilia: posters, old cameras, and probably an unseen skeleton or two. He asks to sit in the waiting area for a minute so we can "look around at all the cool stuff." I take his picture to remember the moment. I think he'll remember this even without the photo. I know I will.

Your turn: Unexpectedly memorable hanging around experiences with Mom or Dad. Please discuss.

One more thing: Almost forgot...I couldn't locate the link to the interview because it seems to have expired from Google's cache. But I did find the interview I did with Kim Parlee for BNN's Outlook 2008 program. We spoke about RIM's prospects in the coming year. Click on this link only if you're not afraid of seeing my hideous form in living color.