What better can parents and children give to each other than respectful, understanding attention.
I want to talk about how great of a father I am. How I never miss any of my kids' wrestling tournaments or big events like birthdays or holidays. I'm always there for anything to do with my kids.
Michael did it all. I am telling you that he is the most brilliant father. Almost before the baby needed something, he knew what it was.
I stopped drinking when I had children because I wanted to be awake and aware. I did not want to be going, you know, daddy loves you and then drop my head on the table. I do not want to miss anything that they do or say. It is important to me.
Always be available to your kids. Because if you say, 'Give me five minutes, give me ten minutes,' it'll be 15, it'll be 20. And then when you get there, the shine will have worn off whatever it is they wanted to share with you.
I have now is whenever my kids say, "Can you look at this?" or "Can I ask you something?" or "Can you come here for a minute?" no matter what I am doing, I say yes instead of saying, "Just a sec." They never abuse the privilege, and I never once regretted it. What they took me away to do was never less important than what I was doing already.
Now I can look back and say I actually like the upbringing I had and my father was very attentive and a great educator.
Nick's mother and I were attentive, probably overly attentive - part of the first wave of parents obsessed with our children in a self-conscious way.
