Dad's Celebrity Carpool Dressup

Carpool has never been this fun...for parents.

Superstar Swimmer Michael Phelps

B. Herbst

As far as school carpools go, my friend Brad owns it! I don’t mean he’s first in line in the morning or passes out cups of Starbucks to his fellow carpoolers from a traveler carafe either. I mean when it comes to getting the last laugh over his kids with absolutely no laughter from them, and howling laughter from his fellow parents and Facebook friends, Brad is THE master. Why? While I’m in my yoga pants (I don’t do yoga), random pajama tee, flip flops and ponytail-bun, Brad is decked out in whatever hilarious costume will embarrass his kids. And boy is he creative!

By the-rest-of-the-day, Dr. Bradley Herbst is a successful Podiatrist but by morning carpool, he is Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps, Richard Simmons (seriously!) or Garth from “Wayne’s World.” Aside from wondering “why does he have so many wigs and costumes” and “he must spend a lot of money at our local Party City,” I couldn’t help but wonder what on Earth possessed him to dress up and embarrass his kids on a daily basis in the first place? I mean, I was a Middle School girl once. Pretty much everyone was embarrassed by their parents and they wore regular clothes. Granted, it was the 90s and regular clothes meant Z Cavariccis and Champion Sweatshirts, so the embarrassment was legit. But I would straight-up die if I ever saw mine or anyone’s parents looking like a masked Mexican wrestler and then post it on Facebook (okay, so I am thankful I grew in the 90s for lack of social media.)

There is a method to his madness though. Brad and his wife Sharon are super fun people who love going all out for 80s costume parties or “The Ohio State” football parties (as they call it). But it was his daughter Sydney who inspired his daily celebrity costume party parade. As Brad tells it, one day Sydney did not approve of his shorts and t-shirt (which Sharon agreed looked perfectly fine) and so she told him he couldn’t drive her to school that day. Well, on behalf of our entire community we totally should thank her because without skipping a beat, Brad got decked out the next day and never looked back, leaving all us parents to look forward to “Who” Brad will be wearing that day. Seriously, my brain isn’t that creative. I would have just sat down with my kids like Carol Brady and gave a speech about “it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

As a mental health advocate, I did consider the impact this has on his kids. Aside from teaching them a lesson about not criticizing someone’s appearance or outfit, something surprising has come of this. The other kids in the community have to come think that Sydney’s dad is the coolest and look forward to seeing him at school, so much so, they arrive early to catch a glimpse of this celebrity dad. In a day and age where kids really think us adults are losers and are in no rush to go anywhere, it’s pretty awesome that they think one is pretty decent. As for Sydney and her younger brother Andrew, they’re getting used to it. Andrew actually finds it hilarious.

Now that I’m a mom and my kids won’t even look my way when friends are nearby, I fully appreciate his hilarity and umm, modesty. I also appreciate his commitment and effort each morning to getting up, putting Ariana Grande-style ponytail pipe cleaners in his hair and dropping the kids off at school. Getting my own husband to drop-off the kids requires hours of planning, Google calendar coordinating, synchronizing our watches and ridiculous texts that say “the eagle has landed.” Imagine if we went in costume.

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Brad Herbst

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B. Herbst

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B. Herbst