We FaceTime and Skype. My two older kids got iPods for their birthdays, so they can FaceTime their dad whenever they need him. They always get a six o'clock call right after dinner, and I make sure I talk to each child. Even my 1-year-old gets on the phone and says 'Daddy.' They know my schedule by now and count the days back until I get home.
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
It's not easy being a father, but I've been allowed a comeback.
When a father, absent during the day, returns home at six, his children receive only his temperament, not his teaching.
One father is enough to govern one hundred sons, but not a hundred sons one father.
Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
As a newspaper reporter, I covered and was around a fair number of crime scenes involving juvenile delinquents, and few things bothered me more than listening to their parents. Crying, ranting, proclaiming how great their children were despite being kicked out of school or previous run-ins with the law.
It's been nice to spend time with the family. It's been good to spend time with the wife and kids.
That's something that I struggled with - talking to my mother about some of the problems that I had.
I'm blessed with eight children - though I'm talking about eight adults now.
When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
My family is everything for me, they're so important - my wife and my son.
If I could do anything over, I'd have spent more time with my first set of children. I would have taken more quality time with them, for sure.
I always knew she was being funny, but when I tell my therapist that my mom played the trust game with me and let me fall on the ground, my therapist does not find that funny. She's like, "That's the reason for everything! That's why you have such a hard time with trust!" And I'm like, "I don't really have a hard time with trust. I thought it was funny."
I love my mom. And this time, I told her I loved her. And she told me she loved me, too. And things were okay for a little while.
I make sure that I'm not focused on other things when I'm spending time with my children.
In erotic love, two people who were separate become one. In motherly love, two people who were one become separate. The mother must not only tolerate, she must wish and support the child's separation.
One of the most startling events in my life was when my older son was about 16, and he blamed me for all the troubles of the world. So I, I felt like telling him, 'Oh no, I was just like you when I was your age; I wanted to change the world, too.'
It is not possible for any institutions to interfere in the way parents raise their children.
My mother is who she is. I've become who I am. At some point I realized those two just didn't go together.
The character and history of each child may be a new and poetic experience to the parent, if he will let it.
No matter how it started, I grew up with a great American love story. Two parents who didn't fight, enjoyed having parties and being together, and it was a great way to grow up.
I have a very wonderfully, bizarrely amazing relationship with my mother in that we've been through a myriad of emotions because we've acted together and played all these different kinds of mother-daughters.
I love working with my dad, but I need to be independent and do my own stuff.
