Father Knows Less

by Lee Kalcheim

  I also like to think that this is good for them. This is a life lesson for them, this bullying you. They are learning that, to get on in life, you have to go after what you want. If it’s kicking your dad out of the living room where he’s enjoying a baseball game, you have to do it, because some day you’ll want something more important and because it worked on Dad it can work on something really, really important. It can get you a job. Or a woman. Or a whole life, that you really, really want and that, if you had not practiced on your parents, you might be too timid to go for.

  Kids grow up by testing you. They are testing your love. They are testing your patience. They are testing your knowledge … and soaking it up. They are students and teachers. They are your biggest fans and your severest critics. They are exhausting. But now, as I sit alone in my living room, watching a Yankee game, indulging in the quiet of their absence, I miss them beyond all I ever imagined missing anything.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks to Ann Treistman, editor supreme, who took a mess of memories and helped shape them into a book. Joe Pittman who picked up the baton and took it over the finish line. To my friends who read early drafts and urged me on, especially Ken and Cathy Greenwald and Martha Rush-Meuller. And to Julia Lord, whose energy and enthusiasm got it into print.