“Any new insights that you’ve had since becoming a father?”
“Everything I do is watched. For example, when I tell him to wait one minute, and I put my finger up to tell him to wait one minute. At first, he didn’t understand what that meant, but then he learned, and now he will put his finger up at me. He’s copying. And so everything I do is monitored and watched and critiqued. … But the biggest thing that I’ve learned … [has to do with] the amount of love you can have for someone … When I come home and I can hear him get excited because he knows that I’m knocking on the door or opening the door, that’s one of the best moments of my day, just hearing him breathe heavily, that’s all it is—”
“Sounds like a dog.” *Laughs*
“That’s basically what you could equate it to, because he’s crawling on the floor, literally, panting trying to get to me… [with my son] there are an element and a level of patience… I watch him learning how to walk, and I watch him fall, again and again, and again, and then the other day he takes three steps between my wife and me, and it’s a ju-bi-lee! It was a fanfare party afterward. And then he’s back to this struggle again. Do I allow that same amount of patience for myself when I am struggling to learn something, and the answer is no—should I? Probably. Because that’s what growth is about. … I read this book by Carol Dweck called ‘Mindset’, and it’s amazing… this idea that in no way do you have to settle; you can always grow. And with that, take joy in that journey, in that struggle. I think that’s what I’m learning as a father. We’re going to enjoy the moments when you can’t move at all, and you’re just a burrito.
*Laughs*
And when he gets to walking, we’ll enjoy that. When he gets to running, we’ll enjoy that. And it’s just taking joy in every part of that journey.”