This Is What Parenting Is About

Too often parents want to spoil their children. Give them what I never had. If you’re a parent you can decide to do this by buying their love with material possessions or experiences. Or as a parent you can truly give them what you did not get and this is what parenting is all about. You can give them lots of hugs. You can give them time. You can give them laughter. You can give them your presence and uninterrupted attention.

Professional football player Marquise Lee gave his daughter exactly that. In 2020 he decided to not play that year because of COVID-19 and he had the option to play for the best football coach there is, Bill Belichick. He wasn’t afraid, worried or tired. Afterall, he was at the height of his playing career. Because of how COVID-19 impacted professional sports Lee would have spent too much time away from his family. Lee has put his body and mind through a lot playing professional football. Yet, he could not stand for being away from his daughter. So, Lee gave his daughter his time. His commitment to being a present father. Because, well, Lee did not have a present father himself. So he gave what he did not get. Lee knew the moment as a father meant more than playing football. “Football is going to be there at the end of the day,” Lee would later say in an interview with ESPN. Yet, he knew that year without his daughter would have been gone forever. Despite also knowing that in the NFL, your career is tragically short.

January 26, 2020 Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash. He was with his young daughter Gianna and there were seven other passengers. All died, tragically.

A few weeks before his death Kobe received a text from a reporter at ESPN. The reporter was working on a story about something that happened when Kobe was an active player in the NBA for the LA Lakers. And rightfully so, she wanted Kobe’s contribution to the story. Kobe replied with, “Can’t right now. My girls are keeping me busy. Hit me up in a couple of weeks.”

Kobe gave his family what he didn’t get. TIME. He gave his family what he did not know would be taken away, TIME. As a parent with your own children, you get to decide what kind of parent you will be. Kobe won’t get any more time with his kids. And in the moment he knew his girls were the single most important thing. He dedicated his life to basketball and the results showed it. He is and always will be one of the best to ever play basketball. And at the conclusion of his life, he also showed, just how great of a father he is through his dedication. The interview would have taken him all of 15 or 30 minutes. That, still was not enough time to take away from his family

Note from Dan Roman - This is the one year anniversary of this blog. Thank you for reading it everyday. What sparked this idea to begin with is my love for writing, reading, learning and acquiring wisdom. It was born on 10/23/2022, my daughters birthday.

Giving her exactly what I did not have has been the highest honor of my life. I hope she gets to read each of these daily meditations one day.

What are your thoughts on this blog? Comment below…

Thought Provoking Questions : What can you give your kids?

Daily I write and release a daily meditation. A quick read. Sharing wisdom and asking thought-provoking questions. Influenced by the obstacles, success and failures in my life and of others. Using history, books, current events, philosophy, and ancient wisdom. These writings are actionable, thought-provoking, designed to make your life better. 

These writings are not to push a way of thinking on the reader or to force you into a certain philosophy or methodology. Rather to give you practical and real ways to handle life. This is an added tool. My writing is simply a discussion, a discourse, with all the material I read, watch, hear and consume.