This is one of my favorite photos, when Gracie ran up to hug me at the end of my POLLYANNA musical performance. It was a show I had worked on off-and-on for almost 10 years. And she and her older sister were a major part of the inspiration for writing the show to begin with.
One indispensable key to fatherhood is simply SHOWING UP. It’s tricky because most of the time you feel like you’re actually doing nothing that matters.
You attend your child’s ball game, their school, choral concert, a family gathering you’d rather skip. Every holiday as you wrangle through the tumult that is “family”, your brain argues “wow, this is not my idea of a day off”! You wonder what’s the point of you being there at all.
But “BEING THERE” is the whole point: of being a husband, a Father, a real man. Just showing up is 90% of the job. You see, the good news is you don’t really have to be smart, or funny, or good at throwing a softball. Mostly, your wife and kids just want to know you cared enough to come to their “special day”, whatever it may be. I guess God made it that way because even an idiot could do it. So that covers you and me, right?
Be there for your kids, and for your wife, guys. And then one day, when it’s your special day, just like Gracie, they will be there for you…
