I missed a few things over the years, I won’t name them all, but I’ll tell you a story about one. It’s a time when the older 2 kids were young. I’d say several years back, it was a hot summer and the cool winds were few, but that mattered not, I had a third child on the way and everything seemed in disarray. Or was it? Let me take you on a walk through my dusty old memory and recount the story.

Things were tough that summer, job was going bad, 3 owners arguing all the time and the stress was growing. I said the hell with them and found a new job within a week. I had long dreamed of returning to college and actually finishing, that would have to wait. Earlier that year my friend and I nearly opened our own business, but he back out and tried to move to Florida (still love the guy, don’t see him anymore, but still love they guy). Everything seemed it was in disarray! You get the point.

I longed to have the extra money to have a long 3 day weekends, head to the beach with kids, watch them play and take in the sunset. Have a fun camping trip the kids would enjoy like I did when I was young (my wife was expecting child number 3, she might have not wanted to go camping). I moaned in my stressful state and was miserable inside.

However, I missed the boat, maybe the whole sea. I didn’t need to go anywhere but the back yard or the park down the street. I could’ve enjoyed my 2 girls without adding in much. The plastic slide, squirt guns, sprinkler, the kid pool and bubbles would have provided hours of fun. And that was all before Type 1 Diabetes invaded our lives! I missed it. I could have taken what I had and enjoyed the time I had.

Hey dads, I’m now talking directly to you, Hey dads, you listening now, lean in and listen. Are you listening? You don’t need things to get enjoyment out of life; you just need to spend your time wisely with your family. You can use google to brain storm ideas that are free to very cheap for having fun with the kids. You don’t do things to make your life fun; you do them because you enjoy them.

You don’t need a 1000 dollar weekend to a water park, vacation in Florida, or a magnificent camping trip in a 28 foot camper. I like to smoke a cigar now and then, about 3 to 5 a year. I do that because I enjoy them, not because I have to smoke them to enjoy my evening by the fire pit. See my point?

I missed it, I could have enjoyed my children without the fear of a low, ate popsicle after popsicle, ran through the sprinkler until the grass turned to mud, played t-rex daddy (a personal favorite with my kids) and any number of things that were free. Things are much better now, my job is pretty darn good, and we’ve vacationed in Florida a couple of times in the last 3 years. I enjoyed those, because I learned a trick, I learned to enjoy the time no matter what. That’s hard a lot of the time, but time is short before they go off to college. My guess, at 22, they won’t find T-rex daddy that much fun.

Godspeed

Tim