Father’s Day 2021.
Dear dads / fathers / papas / adas / dadas / pops / daddies / dadooches / dadaboos / parents and partners with children in your lives,
I think you’re awesome.
Do the people in your life have any idea how much you are doing in the name of raising a young world citizen?
A world citizen, who you are parenting, educating, and continually growing alongside.
A world citizen who carries your legacy in biology, name, emotional presence, psychological resilience, love and/or beyond.
I see you.
When your baby is screaming at 2am and you show up to co-regulate and bring your child back to baseline: You are appreciated.
When your 4 year old gets a stomach bug and vomits all over every clean article of clothing she has, so you do extra shifts at the laundromat. You ensure your child remains safe and warm amidst her own bodily upheaval: You are valuable.
When you maintain a sense of normalcy in your child’s life while the world all around you is crashing down, You are important.
When your teenager curses you out because you’re too much of something and not enough of something else: You are courageous.
When you realize the many blessings and the many hells of this journey called parenting: You are wise.
When you are absolutely exhausted but your child needs your help with her science project at the 11th hour, and you actively listen, engage and provide guidance and inspiration: You are awesome.
I honor you.
Your willingness to push past discomfort to have strange and interesting conversations with your young child. Your courage to forge a new path for dads everywhere by showing up for the hard stuff. physically and emotionally, despite old-world notions of what a father’s role is supposed to look like.
To all the dads out there who make it a point to show up for your children, even when it pushes against your comfort level, and you have 100 other things going on, and your child doesn’t necessarily validate that you are there with them:
thank you.
Thank you for showing up. That is sometimes [often] the hardest part.
There’s no one way to be an amazing dad. If you are feeling stuck about how to connect with your child, here’s an invitation:
Start by taking 2 minutes (you can even set a timer) to just be with your child.
No agenda, no correcting.
Just be and observe the wonder of who they are.
No initiating your own ideas of what the scene should look like.
Get curious about their inner world.
Notice your own thoughts.
Don’t try to steer the ship, just chill in the water and bobble around.
The gift is in this:
What do you see?
What do you notice?
What do you wish for?
“We shall walk together on this path of life,
for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other
to form one whole unity.”
—Maria Montessori
