Same old fussing, brand new loving

By Meg Ferrante

Every parent has been there. Just one of those nights where the kids are falling all apart because they are tired, hungry, bored, insert any one of many possible maladies here.... That was last night at our house.

Thankfully we have a new remedy for that in these parts. A solution more powerful than the finest cajoling, more effective than even bribery. The world's best medicine for my boys: Daddy.

For the last 17 years of our marriage, my husband has had only one job that didn't have him on the road 3+ days and nights a week. And that job had him in the sky training Air Force flight students all day and working in the office until midnight some nights. So really, his absence in our house has left a giant hole.

Together--the kids included--we recently realized how "Cats in the Cradle" our situation had become. And my husband took immediate steps to fix it. He quit a lucrative sales job to try his hand as a financial advisor working a normal workday a mere 20 minutes down the road. It's only been three weeks, but a gal could get used to this new normal.

With Dad stepping up to the plate last night, a severely whiney situation was fairly quickly diffused. The best part was how beautifully it played out.

Oldest was cranky about all his homework. Middlest had chores to do, but wasn't listening and got in trouble. (Trouble + middlest = loads of crabbing and tears.) Rather than launch into another lecture, Bob says to him, "Look, son, I love you more than anything, but I still need your cooperation." From his spot hunched over a math worksheet, oldest lets out a wail, "You love him more than ANYTHING? What about meeeee?"

"Boys! Get over here!" says Dad, stepping to my computer and logging on to You Tube. In the kitchen, unaware of his plans, I soon hear the strains of George Strait's "Love Without End" and it's sweet refrain:

"Let me tell you a secret, about a father's love
A secret that my daddy said was just between us
He said, 'Daddies don't just love their children
Every now and then.
It's a love without end, amen.' "

My gratitude was bottomless; for this man, for his difficult but loving choice, for his quick thinking in tough situations, and most of all, for his strong arms wrapped around all three of our boys on his lap.

I wasn't sobbing or anything. At least not until our youngest, with his little nasally voice murmurs, "You really do love us, don't you Dad?"

That's a Father's love. Without end, amen.