First, I want to give recognition to all the good parents who work tirelessly to serve their families. This site is dedicated to fathers being all they can for their family. I want to give credit to the fathers staying the course for their loved ones. The tangibles and intangibles of this act truly cannot be quantified.
Parenting is one of the hardest duties in this life, especially when you do it right. What other “job” never stops, only changes with time. I have been taxed more as a parent than any other entity of my life. You are always on call, you are underpaid, intermittently under-appreciated, and many times working behind the scenes without your “employers” never knowing what you are doing.
What they hopefully know is that they live in a happy home full of love. They receive regular food at the family table. Warmth in the cold, cool in the heat. Clothes that fit and that expresses their personalities. Happiness, by words and or contact. They should have a blissfully naïve time frame to be a kid if we are doing our job right. It is our job to ensure the world’s hardships do not have to be in their daily lives.
When you sacrifice your time, your rest, your personal choice, your money, your effort in mental and physical form… your family benefits. It is a wild combination. When you wake up of a morning, and put your family before yourself you are doing it right. In my small experience, right is not correlated with easy.
Being the "right" father costs so much, but the livelihood and wellbeing of your children is worth it.
I want you to know I see you in this act. I give you recognition. By following the right path of selfless parenting, that should give you rightful pride and happiness in what you do.
Be mindful of your sacrifice, I am not advocating to be a martyr. You cannot serve others if you do not rightfully serve yourself. Ensure you are making an effort for balance, recovery, maintaining your positive self identity prior to heading back to the family fray. This way you can maintain the right zeal to bring back your children in your interactions. I have, and still am challenging myself to be more aware of when I am not hitting the right mark of patience and involvement. If that is not occurring, assess the situation, and do your best to mentally and physically reset. That can be prayer, meditation, a big breath, and or a multitude of other methods of resetting. Point is to be more aware, then to come back to the higher entity of yourself.
Take pride in your service gents. Take pride in making tough decisions that benefit your children before yourself. Take pride in being the right father, gentleman. I commend you all for it.