My dad used to say this when my wife and I were young, clueless parents. When Zay Zay and Jojo were babies, our main concerns were things like Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)  or them choking. We couldn’t wait for the kids to grow up so it could all be simpler.

But simple never came. Puberty came. Learning to drive came. Police brutality, gun violence and mass shootings came. Our worries turned from SIDS to Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), from choking on hot dogs to choking on the Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). You can try to be levelheaded as father. You can try to be a good example. You can try to have all the “right” discussions. But the worry doesn’t fade – it just evolves. Accepting that somehow makes things easier.