This dad thing keeps getting better and better. Happy Father’s Day

I always thought that I had an advantage when I became a father.

I had messed up so many things and in so many ways that it was easy to understand and forgive when my kids did something wrong.

Not that it sometimes didn’t take a great effort to keep my composure. When the football got kicked through the storm window I could remember my father repairing a window I had thrown a baseball through. When the football got kicked through the actual window a little later, again, I remembered a baseball, a broken window and a father’s repair. Perhaps I was less than pleasant, but I understood how such a thing could happen.

It actually was helpful because it spurred me to replace the old windows with new.

I was even understanding when a homemade bow shot an arrow into the air conditioner and someone came to tell me the air conditioner was hissing. It as autumn and we wouldn’t have been using it anyway. Besides, I was almost ready to replace it, I rationalized.

When there was a minor fender bender accident, I understood because I have had several myself. I know I was lucky to have survived my teenage years.

My father usually didn’t get that mad at me even though I know he was exasperated at times. Or maybe I have managed to forget stuff. I’m good at that as well.

I have tried to be reasonable myself, though I am sure that my children might not remember that way. I found it nearly impossible to punish my children because I had been through it myself, plus I’m really soft-hearted. Luckily they had a great mother.

It was easy not to get too upset at our kids because after our 2-year-old died in a car accident, we were so grateful to have more children.

We have seen our children grow up, do well, become great parents and allow us to be grandparents. This dad thing just keeps getting better and better.

I hope it is a happy Father’s Day to you as well.