I write this as I watch my son play baseball on a chilly fall day. It’s not an easy thing, being here for every game. Projects, obligations, life are calling. But, every time they start calling too loudly, I think of my dad.

Dad never missed a game or school play or any important moment, exciting or mundane. He didn’t do it because he felt obligated. He loved it. He wanted every moment he could have with us. One day I asked him how he could be there for all of it. I knew how many projects he always had going, how many other things were vying for his time. He said simply, “because you guys are growing up so fast.”

Fast forward and I have three of my own who are growing up fast. I am now convinced that being a parent is the hardest job around. It’s the one job that takes you up as high as you can possibly go, and the next minute, will have you in the dirt. How did he make this look so easy?

I have been needing and sorely missing my dad’s calm, straightforward, advice (usually delivered with a bit of mischievous humor). He had a way of seeing straight through to the heart of any situation and knowing what to do. When I became a teacher, and later a mom, his advice was “be consistent, be patient, and have fun.” I have yet to master those things that he made look like a walk in the park. He never actually vocalized “Always show up for your kids, no matter what,” but he said it with his actions every single day.

I work to do better every day at this parenting job, the one that dad made look so easy. And while I have a lot to learn, I think at least I have the one thing down.

So at each baseball game, school play, at each success or failure, I will be there picking them up and cheering them on because I got to see what it felt like for someone to do that for me while I once grew up fast. And it felt like love.