Comment Know the whole person (Score 1) 527
Condolences, and best wishes for your project.
I lost a parent as a young teenager. My siblings were tweens. We have lots of peek-a-boo and Saturday morning couch fort memories, and don't get me wrong, we cherish them. But what I really miss now, as a grown woman, was getting to know my father as an adult. He was a great father for us as children, but we were too young and/or too sheltered for really open conversations on those thorny adult issues that most parents dread. The man I've gotten to know second-hand through his peers was a thoughtful, interesting, complicated guy. I wish I could have known him as a peer, too.
Whatever medium you and your wife use (and you should participate too, no parent is an island), don't neglect the shades of gray, and the things you'd only say to someone you trust after a couple of beers.
I lost a parent as a young teenager. My siblings were tweens. We have lots of peek-a-boo and Saturday morning couch fort memories, and don't get me wrong, we cherish them. But what I really miss now, as a grown woman, was getting to know my father as an adult. He was a great father for us as children, but we were too young and/or too sheltered for really open conversations on those thorny adult issues that most parents dread. The man I've gotten to know second-hand through his peers was a thoughtful, interesting, complicated guy. I wish I could have known him as a peer, too.
Whatever medium you and your wife use (and you should participate too, no parent is an island), don't neglect the shades of gray, and the things you'd only say to someone you trust after a couple of beers.