It doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter how tough you are. It doesn’t matter how powerful you are.
All of us, now that we have kids, are vulnerable. Not just vulnerable in the sense that we are all hostages to fate, as we said before, but vulnerable to these kids specifically. They have us wrapped around their fingers.
Mark Twain was once invited to give a toast to a gathering of the great Civil War heroes in New York. He could have chosen any topic, but Twain, always looking for the unexpected and the humorous, chose babies. When it comes to our children, “we stand on common ground,” he said, facing Sherman and Grant and hundreds of other officers who had all bravely served under fire. “You could face the death-storm at Donelson and Vicksburg and give back blow for blow,” Twain said with a smile, “but when he clawed at your whiskers and pulled your hair and twisted your nose, you had to take it.”
He was reminding them—and us—that we are all at the mercy of our children. They are a great equalizer, not just within families but also between families. The multi-millionaire and the middle-class mom stand on common ground in front of their toddler. You and the president—especially this president—worry constantly about your children, even if they’re grown up. It does not matter what earthly power we have, we are powerless about them, never happier than our unhappiest child.
We have to take it. And that’s a wonderful humbling…and tortuous thing.
