One of the absolute best aspects of having children and being a parent is the opportunities it presents to view expressions of joy, wonderment, excitement, anticipation, surprise, and delight on their faces. Compared to supplying myself with self-gratification, it’s not even a close race.
If you’re a parent and you expend more energy and time making sure you’re content and happy than you do doing the same for your children, you’re failing at your job--miserably. If you think by just providing a home to sleep in and food to eat that you’ve done your duty, you haven’t. Your responsibility is showing your children life is a treasure and there is gold to be discovered everywhere. If you’re not helping them unearth happiness and delight, you’re also missing out on one of life’s truest gifts. You’re missing out on the endless satisfaction that is bringing joy to another without expecting anything in return.
Tonight, my wife and I are taking our four-year-old to the circus. More than watching the clowns demean each other or the lions roaring or the monkeys riding horses or the tigers flashing foot-long teeth or the women and men flying through the air or the elephants stacking themselves on each other’s back, I’m looking forward to watching the endless stream of expressions on my daughter’s face as she experiences all the grandeur occurring before her eyes. I’m looking forward to her shoveling popcorn in her mouth, tearing cotton candy off the stick, and taking nibbles off my sno-cone as we turn our attention to the center ring and revel in the parade of clowns, animals, and performers making their entrance under the big top. I can’t wait to see her fidget in her chair, anxious to find out what’s coming next. I can’t wait to hear her squeal in delight. I can’t wait to see her curiosity quenched.
The years we have as parents to experience newness and discovery with our children are far too few. They fly by in the blink of an eye. The opportunities we’re given to present them with entirely magical worlds are criminally limited. When such opportunities come along, I firmly believe you have to take advantage of them. So I’ll get one less round of golf in my retirement by shelling out for good seats to the circus. So flippin’ what? So I’ll have to put off buying this or that for a while longer. Big deal. The circus, zoo, ballgames, amusement parks, swimming parks, vacations . . . these are why I work hard.
I’m by no means the world’s greatest dad. My kids put up their share of crap where I’m concerned, trust me. I don’t know if they’ll remember moments like the circus decades from now, but it does my heart to experience these moments with them in the present.
Now pass the peanuts already.
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