Dad: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Ordinary to You

Having never gone fishing before, your kids come with you for their first time out on granddad’s boat. You carefully show them how to bait the hook and cast the line into the water. You luck out when you reel the line back in and there are already not one but two fish on the line. Either you pulled off a miracle, or granddad had a good idea where the fish might be running.

You may think of yourself as just an ordinary guy. You work hard at an ordinary job ancome home to a house amongst a sea of similar structures. You worry about paying all the bills life throws your way. You rejoice when the Orioles win any game, especially against the Yankees. Yes, here at Weber Garage we root for the Orioles and whoever is playing against the Yankees. You dream about what life would be like if you’d founded one of those magical dot-com startups and cashed it in for millions of dollars. But you’re just an ordinary guy trying to simply make it through each day.

Is Extraordinary to Them

But to your kids, you are Superman. And Batman. And MacGyver. All in one person. They look up to you for affirmation, revel when you spend time with them and wonder at your amazing skills when you superglue their toy back together. You go off early in the morning to slay deadlines and rescue projects. You tame fire to cook meat that once was roamed grassy plains into deliciousness - you know, hot dogs on the gas grill.

No matter how normal you may think your life is, there are superfans looking up to you. In your lifetime you’ve been around the sun a few dozen times. You’ve figured out how the world works, more or less, or at least figured out what might be normal. But kids are just starting to see how the world works. They look to those around them to figure out not only how to do things, what to do and how to react to the world around them.

Invest in the Future

When you tell your child to clean their room, what does your own room look like? When you tell your child to pay attention to you, what are you doing when they ask you to pay attention to them? Charles Kettering is attributed with the idea that “every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.” It’s true that your actions speak louder than your words.

“Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.”
– Charles Kettering

Life flies by in a hurry, and if you blink you’ll miss a lot. Look back to your own childhood - what do you remember? Who was in your life? What did they do with you? What did they do for you? How fondly (or not!) do you remember them? How has that influenced your life today? Did you learn a profession, a hobby, or life skills from your parents, coaches, neighbors, teachers or casual acquaintances? Studies show simply being involved in kids' lives makes a huge difference. So live intentionally.

Oh, and lay off the phone some. Nothing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok is more important than your kids.