My Dad

Now that I’m a mom, I realize how commonly people make comments, which imply that a child is a bother. I'm glad my parents didn't do that!

When I was in high school, we were in the middle of a four-week cross-country drive when my father flew to join us because he couldn’t take four weeks off of work.

While in Chicago, we happened to meet a group of frat boys who were taking the entire summer to bicycle across the country. My dad started talking with one of the (very buff - they’d started in San Francisco!) young men. My father used to bicycle a lot, and expressed some envy, saying, “I wanted to bicycle across the country, but when you have a family, you can’t take six weeks off of work.”

He paused a moment, before continuing. “Now, with my wife and children, I can have six weeks worth of fun in two weeks!”