It’s probably best to get the pleasantries out of the way first… Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.

I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what being a dad means to me, and hopefully it resonates with you a little bit.

I, strangely, don’t care too much whether my kids like me or not in any particular moment.

My job as a dad is not to be liked. I’m not trying to make friends.

My first job as a dad is to raise confident, kind, hard-working, loving human beings.

And the thing is, to retain all of those qualities, you MUST experience their opposite.

To create confidence, you must fail.

To be kind, you must experience a lack of kindness in others (what many would refer to as “bullying” today but I just call kids being mean to each other).

To be hard-working, you must not work hard and fail.

To be loving, you must be open to heartache.

Now, don’t get me wrong, as a dad I don’t want to create most of those situations – I’m not a masochist.

BUT, and this is where the rubber meets the road, my job as a dad is to throw my kids out into the world and let them experience these things ON THEIR OWN and then guide them through the lessons learned through their experience.

My job is not to protect them from all of those things.

I know if I try to do that I will fail and they will not know what to do when that happens.

My second job as a dad is to give them the confidence that they can do anything and be anything… and then show them how much hard work and grit and persistence it takes to do that.

And by show them I mean take care of myself, take care of my family, and let them see what it takes to be the best person you can be (i.e. writing emails at 8:50am on a Sunday morning because it’s the right thing to do).

My third, and final job, is to make sure I protect them from everything I should protect them from.

Wear your seatbelt.

Wear a helmet when you ride a bike.

Learn to swim.

Know how to throw a punch (but don’t throw it unless it’s the last option).

Have disability insurance.

Have life insurance.

Have an estate plan (is this a little salesy? Yes. Is it true? Yes. If you don’t have your estate plan done and you have minor children – and you don’t have to do it with us, in my opinion you are failing as a parent.).

Our job as dads is to provide.

Provide if we are alive and able.

Provide if we are not able.

Being a father is the best thing I’ve ever done.

It is something I have a tremendous amount of pride in.

And it is something that takes a tremendous amount of hard work, persistence, kindness, self-awareness, and strategy (play chess not checkers).

Have a day!

Cheers,

Christopher Small

Founder/CEO

CMS Law Firm LLC

PS – don’t keep this estate planning stuff to yourself – you know it’s important and we LOVE referrals!