Thank You, Dad

Posted by Jeff on June 3, 2016 at 8:52 am

Sometimes my mom prints out my blog posts, the touching ones that mention or in some way involve her or my dad or my childhood in general. She’ll jack up the font and use up some of her valuable printer ink so that my dad can more easily read my words as they pertain to my love for him and my mom, my appreciation for the comfortable childhood they provided me, or on those occasions when I get teary-eyed reflecting upon my own fatherhood journey.

It’s incredibly sweet to think of my dad holding my words in his hands, on a page still warm maybe from the printer chugging along, sitting in his favorite spot at the end of the sofa closest to the lamp and table where his glasses and glass of wine sit beside the sports page of the Inquirer and the latest 800 page tome he’s more than halfway through.

Last week, as I was cleaning up my backyard after just agreeing to a couple new things regarding OWTK via email, I realized that I rarely, if ever, say “Thank You Dad” or anything else to my dad in person or on the phone about how much he means to me, how much he’s taught me and how a lot of what I do and have today is informed by the way he was and still is as a husband, dad, businessman and friend. I should also be having health conversations with my dad, to take some of that burden of my mom who battles with him to ensure he keeps going strong. I’m going to sit down with him soon to tell him that Metamucil provides an easy way to help reduce the risk of heart disease because it adds psyllium fiber to a heart-healthy diet. I guess I need to make sure his diet is actually heart-healthy first. These are difficult discussions, no doubt, but essential ones. I owe it to him to inquire about his health and help with it whenever I can.

So with earbuds in, still working away in the yard, I rang up pops to say some of these words to him. I could hear him choking up more than he once instructed me to do on the diamond as a Little League player. He told me he was proud of me and that if he did indeed have any impact on the success I’m having today then he was extremely happy.

Here I am working on this very blog post. How META is that?

Dear Dad,

Eight years ago, when I told you that I was leaving my well-paying and airtight corporate finance job for the at-home dad life, it probably seemed highly unlikely that I’d be in the position I am today. You may not realize it and I probably don’t say it enough but you played, and continue to play, an enormously important role in why I’ve found the modicum of success I have over the past decade plus.

My daughters are kind, happy, thoughtful and bright kids who are still very much wide-eyed children with hearts full of wonder, while also having seen a good portion of the western world. I’m busy with a kind of work I didn’t know existed as recently as 6 years ago. I’m traveling, forming strong relationships with fascinating people, and spreading my wings further than ever before proving that old dogs do indeed fancy a few new tricks to keep things interesting.

I owe a lot to you (and mom too of course, but hey, this is a Father’s Day thing so let’s not lose the plot, okay?) for the man that I am and for the parent I’m still becoming, but I need to thank you for something super duper specific that has contributed immensely to the success I’m finding as a freelance writer, photographer and social media…person? (the word influencer is kinda icky so I’m intentionally avoiding it here)

When you were running your business during my childhood I watched and listened as you demonstrated what it meant to be client-focused while remaining a dedicated family man, pushed for growth and success while remaining a man of integrity and class, and, most notably for my money, the equal and thoughtful way you treated everyone you interacted with, from the hourly employee on the assembly line to the CEO of the firm you were hoping would sign a lucrative new business deal.

I observed all of that and more, in dribs and drabs but enough in total for me to get at what you were doing, for years and it informed the business person and person-person I’d later become as a full-fledged, gulp, adult. When I get emails now pitching me stuff or when too-kind PR reps offer to fly me and my family to amazing places or when dad bloggers who I don’t know ask for help with something, I try to be like you: grateful, gracious, thoughtful, humble, and giving of my time and knowledge.

I know for a fact that these very traits are the catalyst for so much of the good that has happened to me, my family and my humble internet enterprises over the past few years. People seem to really like working with good, honest, reliable and grateful people and I am all those things because of you. I cannot thank you enough.

It has been and continues to be an honor to be your son.