Dear current and future grown children of mine:
You probably remember how sometimes, you’d come to my office and ask if I wanted to play with you. And I’d snap at you and try to get you to leave.
I want you to know that I wasn’t angry with you. I was angry with myself, because I hated the way it felt to say “no” to you. I hated the “bad dad” that made me into.
That doesn’t make it OK. I’m not writing this to justify. I’m writing this to remind myself why I get upset. So I can remember not to take it out on you. And maybe, remember to have a little compassion for myself for being a working dad. Instead of tying myself up in guilt and taking that out on you.
I think maybe that will be better for both of us.