In celebration of Father's Day, I share a story about my girls throwing me a "best dad ever" party. That expression of love was enough to keep me going. I hope you had a wonderful Father's Day. If no one else told you, you are appreciated, even if they don't know it yet.

Despite the warnings we received, we made the decision to get my daughter a dog. It's been hard, but what my daughter is learning is worth it.

We got back from our epic trip to New York City. These are the 3 biggest lessons I learned traveling across the country with my kids.

What is the key to traveling with kids? Planning, planning, and over planning. It is too much work to try and figure stuff out while managing a family. Plan everything out and make room for unexpected things to happen, then be present with your family.

I don't think I censor my kids, but I do manage what they experience. There are certain things that require a certain level of maturity to handle. I can't control everything, and for those instances I make it ok for them to ask questions. That is how we foster a healthy pursuit of understanding.

You would think that it was deeply satisfying, but it was not. It was actually extremely disappointing. These girls need to do things that suck so they know how to grind and not quit. Those are key elements to success in life.

I have discussed discipline before, but I lay out our method for discipline here. 

If we force our dreams onto our kids, it becomes their burden. Our children are not our mission. Our children cannot bear the weight of our dependency on their shoulders. We are bringing up co-pilgrims to walk this road with us (and make it a little further down than we did).

Comparison is the thief of joy. Please stop robbing yourself and you kids of the joy of knowing them uniquely and individually. We have to work hard to remove comparison.

One of the most difficult topics to discuss with our kids is our bodies. This conversation is so important to ensuring our girls have a healthy image of themselves and of others. We can't shy away from this conversation. It might be awkward. It might be uncomfortable. It will also be the most random inappropriate times, but we have to capitalize on every opportunity to have meaningful conversations with our girls.