We All Make Mistakes
I typically spend 350 words a month advising you or cheering you on. It’s well-deserved because every dad needs at least one wise, Gandalf-style mentor dad in their corner, imparting wisdom from their learnings gleaned when they were previously in your shoes.
If you’re over 25, welcome to “team fully-developed prefrontal cortex.” Now that you are capable of reasoning and higher-order thinking, it’s time to come to terms with the second most important concept you need to learn as a man after putting the seat down when you finish peeing.
You’re going to mess up. You already have messed up. In just about every way possible, other than becoming a dad. That was a fantastic move. Many other mistakes have come and gone, and will return.
But that’s okay. You’re a human being. If you didn’t go viral on TikTok for your mess-up, like Gorilla Glue hair girl, then people either have no idea or will forget about your mistake.
What truly matters is how you address and move on from your mistake. You’re going to forget things. You’re going to lose your patience. You’ll feed your kids corn dogs four days in a row because you just can’t deal with one more complaint about not liking dinner. You might even forget your partner’s birthday (although I don’t recommend that one).
You might make a poor choice. You might forget something. You might overreact. A simple “I’m sorry” goes a long way. In 2022, Merriam-Webster named “gaslighting” the word of the year. It’s probably because many people couldn’t admit they messed up.
Your kids are always watching. Learning from you and everything you do. Losing your patience with them, missing their game, or forgetting the diaper bag are all things dads have done and will do again.
Ego or pride getting in the way of your humanity is the only way to make it worse. A simple “I’m sorry” will teach your kids that it is okay to make mistakes and that they will be forgiven for them. It will also show them that even their biggest hero can be a human being, too.
Jeremy McCall is a married father of 3, a social services case manager, and known as “The Dadfather”, being the founder and Past President of Dad Club London.
