Nothing is more important to me in my life than to be the father I never had.
Since we came into each other's lives, I've worked so hard to love, nurture, guide, and cherish my boys. It's so important to me that I never make them feel humiliated, small, unworthy, unloved, or any of the ways my father made me feel every day of my life.
I feel like I may have succeeded, because we are incredibly close, the three of us. We play games together, we hang out together, they seek my advice and my counsel, and I love it when they come to my house to spend time with their mom and me.
This quarantine has been tough for everyone, but it was especially hard to not have my family together. Ryan is an essential worker (on a medical leave right now. He's fine, don't worry. Thank you for your concern) so we couldn't be in the same room as him until just about a week ago, which was two weeks after he took his leave from work.
Now that the four (five, counting my daughter in law) of us have been isolated for so long, we feel like it's safe for us to do family activities again, like take long walks or get together for family meals.
Ryan came over a little bit ago, just because he wanted to be around his family. As I write this, my boys are playing Frisbee in the street, right outside my open window. They are laughing together, supporting each other, and enjoying the experience of being together, sharing some time together.
It makes me so happy when I see my boys love each other, and care about each other. It makes me feel like I did a good job raising them with core values of empathy, compassion, and respect for each other.
I keep seeing these stories of people who are going nuts because they're forced into tight quarters for an extended period of time with their families. I have massive empathy for that. I especially empathize with single parents, and parents of smaller kids (and the hormonal teens) who are really struggling to adapt to our current circumstances. But I'm also intensely grateful that I don't feel that way about my wife and kids. I'm intensely grateful that we all love and respect each other, that we've found ways to support each other, give each other space, and never stop loving each other through all of this.
Oh! The boys are coming into the house. Maybe I can convince them to do something with me.
