From dawn well past dusk I was a dad.
I’m a dad every day and I love every day that I get to be a father to my children, but today was really a chance for reflection and understanding. Moms get it. When you are a mom you have that role full time. You sleep and rise to the cadence of your responsibility. This has been the case for me for quite some time. Today was different. I’m used to the full time role on weekends and breaks and long hot summers. Today was a midweek dad day where the entire universe was made up of boy.
We began the day a little past dawn. I remember waking up to the roar of boys playing some manner of game downstairs. It was 6 AM. I joined them (reluctantly) and we hung out for a few hours before I started getting things together for our Veterans Day kids flag football game. That isn’t really a thing–at least it wasn’t until today. We got together a lot of the kids we play soccer with and got them ready for flag football. We had a game with kids from 5-14 and it was a fun and tiring defensive battle than ended in a 7-0 win on a pick-6.
Here is what I learned: I need a few minutes a day for me. I got 30 minutes today. Ten right now, ten I snuck by locking myself in my office to breathe, and ten I stole when the wife came home. It isn’t enough. Life is crammed with responsibilities, from the time you spend with your kids to your spousal time to you spend working or getting old work done. I need to create a life where I can enjoy my kids the way I love, but also have time to enjoy being with myself and enjoy being a writer.