Recently, I asked a simple question on social media:
“What do you give your children today that you wish had been given to you to support your mental health?”
The responses were powerful.
People talked about love. Grace. Emotional safety. Patience. Time. Support that doesn’t disappear when a child turns eighteen.
As I read those comments, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own journey.
Growing up, there were things I longed for not because my family didn’t love me, but because they were navigating life with the tools they had. Like many children, I carried fears I didn’t yet have the words to explain. I learned independence early, but I wasn’t always emotionally equipped for the weight that came with it.
Today, as a father, that perspective shapes how I parent my daughters.
I want them to know it’s okay to feel.
I want them to know their emotions aren’t problems to solve but experiences to understand. Whether it’s asking about their day, helping them work through anxiety with breathing exercises, or simply sitting with them in difficult moments, I’m trying to give them something I once needed myself: emotional safety.
That doesn’t mean I parent perfectly.
It means I parent intentionally.
I’m learning that breaking generational cycles isn’t about pretending the past didn’t happen. It’s about choosing not to let the past dictate the future.
That’s one of the reasons I wrote Oh Brother, My Brother.
I wanted to create more than a children’s story. I wanted to create a conversation, a space where children feel seen, heard, and safe enough to express who they are without fear of rejection.
Our children don’t need perfect parents.
They need present ones.
Parents who listen before they lecture.
Who connect before they correct.
Who remind them, through both words and actions, that they are loved exactly as they are.
Maybe that’s how healing begins.
Not by rewriting our own childhoods, but by writing a different story for the next generation.
So I’ll leave you with the same question I asked my community:
What are you giving your children today that you wish had been given to you? 💙
