What would sharing our fatherhood experiences look like?

Tonight I was working arduously to put in a bathroom cabinet. My daughter (age 5) was busy cleaning her desk, which was exceedingly messy this particular night. Discourages she said, "But Poppy, how can I do it real fast? It's so much!" I looked at her with a look that said, "well, you shouldn't have made such a mess of it!" but my mouth only said, "clean it up Evangeline".

What should I have noticed? What do I hope you fathers might learn from me? Evangeline asked me a real question. She gave me an opportunity to demonstrate that when things are really messy the best way to clean them up is to separate the items such as paper, crayons, books, and crafts and to then put these items where they go (and make it look nice too!). She had done nothing wrong only feeling the very discouragement that I was also feeling with my task.

Sound too technical for a child? Not at all. Evangeline would have soaked it up and remembered it forever. But I missed it. Listen to your children tonight.