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I’ve had this moment. It was in October 2011 and I was putting the kids to bed. I was kissing and hugging them after a spirited wrestling match and singing a song that always cracks them up. It’s sung to the tune of “Silent Night.”

I change up the food every time and it always kills So

It occurred to me that I could have easily not done this. When it came to having kids, I thought, “I’m old enough, I’ve got a pretty good thing going here. Why mess with it?” And the message I got from my parents was that there was no upside to being a parent. I was a burden to them, why wouldn’t my own progeny be a pain in the ass, too? Had I listened to that retarded i

Being a parent is the greatest success. It’s the ultimate in long-term thinking. When you’re wiping poo-poo and not getting any sleep, you want to kill yourself, but the pride you feel when that kid does something right and shows you that you did your job well, when they have kids of their own and become good parents themselves, that’s the payoff. There’s no way to look that far down the road, but that’s when you feel satisfied. And when you do sense that satisfaction, take a beat and be grateful you could.

So my final piece of fatherly advice, So

Acknowledgments

Thank you to everyone at Dey Street/HarperCollins who told me I should write yet another book that no one in my family will read. This includes Ly

I should also thank the folks who handle all the business side of the book thing for me — James “Babydoll” Dixon, my agent, Dan Strone, my literary agent, and Dan Bodansky. I’d also like to tip my hat to Mike Lynch, the wizard behind the curtain for all of this.