Some single moms say they have to be both mother and father to their kids.
So a Texas mom decided to dress for the part when her son’s school had a Donuts with Dad event.
Yevette Vasquez of Fort Worth dressed liked a dad — with a baseball cap, plaid shirt, fake mustache and a dash of cologne — so her son, Elijah, wouldn’t miss out on the event.
“Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve dressed as a man,” Vasquez laughingly told CNN. “We’re going to remember this forever.”
She posted the pictures of her dad getup on Facebook, and it’s been a viral hit, shared thousands of times.
The outfit
When she and Elijah had first pulled up to Sue Crouch Intermediate School last week, she wondered why there were so many cars in the parking lot. That was when Elijah told her about the doughnuts event, slyly adding, “You got 10 minutes until the bell rings.”
Since they live only a block from school, they raced home and put together the dad outfit in just 7 minutes.
Elijah helped by giving her the mustache and his plaid shirt. He also shaped her look.
“He was telling me what I should wear,” said Vasquez. And when it wasn’t manly enough, he let her know.
“He kept saying, ‘No, you still look like a girl!'” she said.
The reaction
When they returned to the school, Vasquez said she most of the dads there supported her impromptu response.
“Most of the dads thought it was really cool,” she said. “They thought it was really supportive and sweet. I did feel the energy of a few men who weren’t as comfortable with it though.”
Elijah was more than all right with it.
“He was really excited,” she said. “He was shaking and said, ‘Thank you.’ I told him, ‘I did this for you so you can have fun.'”
The reaction online has been positive, too. Vasquez said she’s heard from single parents all over the world, sharing with her their own parenting triumphs and struggles.
#wegettingthemdonuts
Vasquez said she dressed as a dad because she wanted to have fun with her son and because there had been other times when Elijah missed out on a school activity that involved dads.
“I saw that same, sad look on his face, and I didn’t want that,” she said. “I wish I would have done it sooner.”
But there was one thing she didn’t get to do that day — eat a doughnut.
Even though she dressed up like a man specifically for the Donuts with Dad event — and put the hashtag #wegettingthemdonuts on her post — she was too nervous to eat, so she gave her doughnut to Elijah.
Will she ever break out the plaid shirt and fake mustache at school again?
“I may have to do it again,” she says, because her two younger sons want “dad” there when they’re old enough to go to Donuts with Dad.
