'Daddy, Don't Quit Your Day Job'

Chris started grad school a couple weeks ago, taking two classes a semester — all online — in hopes of getting the advanced degree he needs for his "someday career," when he wants to make the switch from leading a newsroom to leading a classroom. It’s going to be a lot of work (and a good bit of sacrifice for all of us, I’m guessing) but it will be worth it to watch him realize a dream he’s had for so many years.

Last night Kostyn pointed to Chris’s Mass Comm Theory textbook and asked what it was.

“It’s a book I need for school,” Chris said. “I’m going to school so I can be a teacher.”

Kostyn was silent for a minute, still looking at the book. Then: “No.”

“You don’t want me to be a teacher?” Chris asked. “You want me to keep being an editor?”

“Nooo,” Kostyn said again, this time more forcefully. Then he climbed up on Chris’ lap and said, with quiet concern, “I want you to be a Daddy.”

Chris and I exchanged glances before he wrapped his arms around Kostyn and held him perhaps tighter than he ever had. “Ohhhhh I will ALWAYS be your Daddy,” he said. “Always always always. No matter what else I do, no matter what job I go to during the day, being your daddy is the most important thing to me. OK?”

“Yeah,” Kostyn said.

Powerful validation and motivation from one moment of misunderstanding.