🌴 Be Present When It Matters

Be Present When It Matters

Hey parents. Daniel here. 👋 

Parenting our children is one of the greatest joys in my life, but also one of the most challenging things to do well.

We have two boys — a 2.5-year-old toddler and a 4-month-old newborn baby (I almost cried realizing he isn’t a newborn anymore). Life is rambunctious and exciting and chaotic.

I am lucky enough to work from home. I work in tech (actually at beehiiv, the company that powers this newsletter). It’s fun. I love it. But also I’ll periodically be in a meeting with someone like New York Times and hear children bouncing off the walls in the background.

I love working from home but sometimes that can be challenging for me, just being real.

But lately I’ve been attempting to completely reframe my approach to being present, and trying to receive these moments with a smile on my face.

This week I was in a meeting and our toddler opened the door with a new whistle he got at Main Street Reads and he said: “Dad, look at this whistle I got!” as he blew into the whistle right next to me while I was mic-on in a meeting LOL.

I laugh at it now in hindsight but in the moment I was definitely flustered. And that’s what I want to become better at as a father.

Work is important, don’t get me wrong. But if I could replay the whole thing in my head, I would have politely asked the client on the phone for 15-30 seconds (they would have been just fine), took my headphones off, looked my son in the eyes with a massive smile on my face, and watched him blow his whistle with joy.

That moment is something I’ll have plenty of opportunities to make right, and I will.

Be present. Be joyful. Don’t mistake the priorities of life with the necessity of being present with your children. Work will always be there, but your kids will grow up and be gone before you know it.

Make the most of the moments they joyfully share with you.

Match their excitement.

Exceed their excitement.

Those are the moments that matter more than anything else.

-Daniel