The Workaholic Dad

I have been thinking lately about how fast childhood goes.

That thought really hit me after Justin’s family got back from their trip to Nevada to see Victoria and her family, and then all of them took a cruise together. Four adults, four kids, and enough travel activity to make me wonder if I somehow raised a family of part-time tour guides.

Watching it all unfold, it hit me that my kids and grandkids have had more vacation experiences than I ever did, which is both impressive and, frankly, a little rude.

Thirty-Five Years of Perfectly Timed Phone Calls

That probably makes sense when I look back on the kind of dad I was for most of my career. For 35 years, I worked in trucking as a terminal manager, which is a nice way of saying I was always on call, always half-tense, and never fully convinced the world would hold together without me.

My phone had a special gift for ringing at exactly the wrong moment. Family time? Ring. Quiet moment? Ring. Any situation that looked like it might turn into an actual memory? Ring.

I would disappear into the other room to take the call, and when I came back, I was usually still mentally sorting freight.

Seven Moves and a Guest-of-the-Day Award

On top of that, I moved my family seven times and spent more nights in hotels than I probably care to count. Not because I had some deep love for cardboard boxes or continental breakfasts, but because every time the company had a terminal that needed fixing, they usually sent me.

I took pride in that. It meant I was good at what I did. However, it also meant my family kept getting picked up and moved right along with me.

I would go ahead, bury myself in the operation, and live in a hotel while Jennifer handled the heroic part—finding the house, moving the family, and getting everybody settled. By the time I arrived, I was basically the last one to know my own address.

Victoria always got first pick of the bedroom because she was older, which I am sure Justin found deeply inspiring.

My Kids Took One Look and Chose the Opposite

What is funny now is that my kids seem to have taken one look at my system and decided to try the opposite. Justin takes vacations with his family like that is a perfectly normal thing to do. Meanwhile, Victoria and her family are always off doing something outdoors, scenic, or suspiciously healthy.

Then the whole crew gets together for a family trip and a cruise, and somehow it all looks easy. When I was their age, I treated time off like it was a clerical error.

Childhood Goes Fast

And that is probably the part I notice most now. Childhood goes fast. It does not wait for work to calm down, the phone to stop ringing, or your schedule to become more reasonable.

Maybe that is one reason Dig Dig means so much to me now. Yes, it is sand and toys and a construction theme. But underneath all of that, it is really a place for family memories with kids.

It is a place for families to slow down, be together, and enjoy simple parent-child moments while the kids are still little enough to think that being with you is the best part of the day.