It breaks your heart to be away from them. When you have to travel for work…or just drop them off at daycare. When you have to stay late at the office…when your meeting goes long. It broke your heart to take them to look at colleges, knowing what it would mean for them to move out.

We get it. You love them. You miss them terribly. You wish you had more time with them. You hate the things that take you away, or them.

But…but…but…

Why, when you are with them, do you spend so much time on your phone? Why are you cutting play time short for some made-up reason? Why are you hurrying bedtime along?

We say we wish we could be around more, we apologize for being away. And yet? Here we are, right now, with them, but emotionally far, far away. Not here. Not present. Not putting them first.

C’mon.