Maybe you don’t love where you live. Maybe if you had more money or a different job, you’d live elsewhere. Maybe it is too liberal or too conservative or too damn provincial for your taste. But this place you live right now, with your kids?
It’s their home. It’s where they are from.
And that means something.
Do you remember the Springsteen lyrics?
“I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick
And steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say “Son, take a good look around
This is your hometown.”
This is your hometown. That means something. Even if you’re planning on moving soon. Even if one day they’ll flee it for the big city or for another country or if it dies on its feet and rusts out like so many towns have over the years.
So show them what’s good about it. Show them how to be a part of it, how to contribute to it. Show them the well-known sights…and the out of the way places. Show them the history. Show them its flaws. Let them really see it. Let them really experience it, let it enter their consciousness.
Because maybe, like the lyrics go, when they have a boy of their own they’ll move back. Or maybe they’ll remember the experiences you had there, together, forever. Because whatever happens, this is their hometown.
P.S. This was originally sent on June 18, 2020. Sign up today for the Daily Dad’s email and get our popular 11 page eBook, “20 Things Great Dads Do Everyday.”