TheDadEffect

My 5 year old asked me why I go to work every day. I said 'so we can live in this house and eat good food.' He said 'can't you just do that here?' Bro has a point.

December 31, 1972. Roberto Clemente boards a plane in San Juan loaded with relief supplies for earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He didn't have to go himself. He went anyway. His three boys were waiting at home. Ages 7, 6, and 3.

Saw this today: "Dads who say 'I love you' raise sons who say it back." That's the whole game. The boys mirror what they see. If they don't hear love spoken, they don't learn how to speak it. Goes for forgiveness, courage, and apologies too.

"Lately all my friends are worried they're turning into their fathers. I'm worried I'm not." — Dan Zevin The older I get, the more I want to be more like my dad — not less. Took me 30 years to understand that. #DadEffect

My 2-year-old just handed me his sippy cup, said "fix it," and walked away. Didn't tell me what was broken. Didn't show me. Just expected results. Dude's going to make a great executive someday.

"You don't have to deserve your mother's love. You have to deserve your father's." — Robert Frost Mom's love is the floor. Dad's love is the climb. Both matter — but they show up differently. #DadEffect

Frederick Douglass had 5 kids. He'd been beaten as a slave. Barely knew his own mother — she walked 12 miles at night just to see him as a boy. When he became a father, he had no template for being one. So he built it from scratch.

The small annoying interruptions ARE the relationship. The 4th time he asks you to watch the same trick. The bedtime stalling. The 'one more song.' That's not the obstacle to fatherhood. That's the whole thing.

"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories." — John Wilmot Every dad of more than one kid feels this in his bones. #DadEffect

My 5yo asked me what 'taxes' are. I said it's money the government takes. He thought for a second and said 'we should hide our money.' Kid's already further along than half of Congress.

"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes — even if it's just in your own eyes." — Walter Schirra Sr. Father of astronaut Wally Schirra. Built that. #DadEffect

Bruce Springsteen's dad worked factory shifts in Freehold, NJ. Came home angry. Sat in the kitchen in the dark, drinking beer. Bruce was scared of him for most of his childhood. Hated him for years. Then he wrote a song about him.

Saw a dad at the grocery store today carrying his kid in one arm, a gallon of milk in the other, diaper bag on his shoulder. Some guy walked by and said 'wow you're a saint for babysitting.' He's not babysitting. He's parenting. There's a difference.

Charles Swindoll: 'Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.' Some days I'm depositing patience. Some days I'm overdrawing. The account is always open. #DadEffect

My 2-year-old just spent 20 minutes trying to put his shoe on the wrong foot, refused all help, finally got it on, looked at me, said 'I did it,' and then immediately fell over. We're not raising perfectionists. We're raising people who try.

Walt Disney on raising kids: 'Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.' Pretty wild from a guy who built an empire on imagination — he knew what actually mattered. #DadEffect

1903. The President of the United States is in his White House study. He's been working 16 hour days. War is brewing. The economy's shaky. He picks up a pen. Not for a treaty. For a letter to his 6-year-old son.

The dads coaching their kids' rec teams aren't doing it for the wins. They're doing it for the 7-minute drives home where their kid actually talks to them.

Jim Henson — the Muppets guy — said: 'Kids don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.' Realized that when my 5yo sighed at his cereal the exact way I sigh at my coffee.

Both boys in the bath. 2-year-old fills a cup with water. Hands it to me. 'Drink it daddy.' I drink it. 5-year-old: 'That had soap in it.' Yeah. I figured.

Carl Jung: 'Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.' Your kids aren't listening to your speech. They're watching how you react when traffic cuts you off.