I have been a dad for 18 years now. When I was young I seemed to have all the time in the world for my kids. Now that I am older I feel tired and run down. I have this hip problem that hurts to do a lot. I have excessive amounts of work to do, even after work. I’m not the killer dad I used to be.
I remember those LDS commercials from my youth. The ones that say, “It’s about… time.” Where the parent realizes at the last moment that they should stop what they are doing and spend time with their kid. Well, tonight was another night where I didn’t do that. I didn’t stop and do the thing they asked me to do. I used all the above excuses not to. It’s past your bedtime. I’m tired. I’m sore. I just need you to go to bed tonight.
On one hand, I feel like I get jaded by bedtime. It’s a one-track action. Go to bed. Stop trying to get out of it. Go to bed. Over and over to the point it gets frustrating to say it one more time.
On the other hand, isn’t it about time? If they want to spend quality time. That will change at some point. Is spending 10-15 minutes with them the worst thing in the world? There could be a quality moment in there. At a minimum, they may feel their dad loves them enough to care about what they care about.
I would grade myself tonight as an F. And none of this clicked until about an hour after I last sent them off to bed.
I know I can do better.