As a child, I remember wishing my father would do X or be around for Y.  I just wanted to be around a father who taught me things and was a role model.  And maybe he was around for X1 and X2 but missed X3.  (And I did not put that together.)  Perhaps he did Z which I never understood or Q which I never realized. (Any maybe that is why he missed X3 or he made it to H because he self-sacrificed K.)  Maybe I was being reasonable, maybe not, but I was always talking from the perspective of the child with the worldview and perspective I had been exposed to and achieved.

Now the shoes have changed and I see things differently.  While it is not fair to ask a child to walk in his father’s shoes, a father has already walked in a child’s.  Remember a child has yet to learn the other side of the story they are living.  A child cannot comprehend the dynamics of a spouse, work, social commitments, and such that we have and tend to complicate or self-inflate to unnecessary levels of importance or drama.  A joy of children is a return to the simplistic basics of life that has not been cluttered with the noise of adulthood.  I always return to a simple theme: my intent is not to force a child into my world but rather to expand her’s and walk with her.