I’ve never met a thirteen-year-old who said, “My dad was never around because he was always working, but I have a sweet mountain bike so it was all worth it.”
—Jon Acuff
You work very hard and are able to provide. Not just the basic necessities but all sorts of extras. Because of you, your kids have a swimming pool. They have nice vacations. They have a big TV downstairs with lots of channels. They have all this and more.
And yet it doesn’t matter.
It’s not the swimming pool they want; it’s you in the swimming pool with them. It’s being in the motel room eating snacks, together, wherever you happen to be, that they really want. The TV is great, but not as a substitute for Dad.
The stuff you get them is great. It is not, no matter how nice it is, a substitute. It is not the point. They’d rather play in an inflatable pool from Walmart with you than play alone in one with a slide and a waterfall. They’d rather live in an apartment and have family meals together than feel lonely in the best neighborhood in town.
They want you. They want fun. And you should want those things too, because there is no telling how much longer you’ll have them to yourself, or they’ll have you in their lives.