They want you to get in the pool with them. They want you to let them ride on your back. They want you to drive them to their friend’s house. They want to watch that awful movie. They want you to do that funny voice again. 

And what do you want? Not to do that, of course. Because the pool is cold. Because your back hurts. Because you just got home from work. Because you’ve done the voice a thousand times and it makes your throat scratch every time. 

But you have to say yes. You just have to. You think in ten years, you’ll regret twenty minutes in the cold water? You think your back hurts now? Just wait! You think when taking them to college, and dropping them off for the last time, you’ll be thinking anything but what I would give to do it all again?!

This is why we have to say yes. We have to do it, especially now while we still can. As we’ve said before, one day it will be the last time you ever do it. They will have gotten older, or moved away, or god forbid something terrible happened, and the opportunity for one last dip in the pool, one last piggyback ride, one last conversation on the car ride, one last awful movie marathon…will have vanished. 

So say yes now and next time. Say yes while you still can.