I came home late last night to find that Berit was still awake. She heard me come in, and came out of her room to give me a kiss and a hug goodnight. However, I see Berit constantly finding excuses to come out of her room at bed time and count this as one more of those. I perfunctorily kiss and hug her goodnight before abruptly ushering her back into her room.

But I'd earlier heard this guy say, "It's my job to treat everyone with love and respect... no mattter how they behave towards me," and i believe that to be true. Especially with the kids. I thought about it afterwards and resolved to try harder to embrace those moments when I can choose to connect with my kids, instead of just playing dad.