I missed Logan’s bedtime last night. I was off with the chosen family taking care of business and then I was starving so I went to eat with some of them. (I had beef-tongue tacos and they were delicious.)

I got home and asked my wife if Logan was asleep. She wasn’t sure, but told me he was mad I wasn’t there at bedtime. I went to check on him, but he was passed out. When he woke up this morning and I went in there I got the puppy dog eyes and was told how sad he was I wasn’t there to read him a few chapters in the book we are reading before bed.

We don’t normally read at bedtime. He’s never been a kid that wants to be read to at bed time. We read whenever the mood strikes him. But we are reading the first of the Dragon Master series and it’s the first book we’ve read that has chapters and cliffhangers at the end of each one. It’s been a new experience for him and he has been loving it. (Me too.) Logan is home this week so I said I was sorry, but said we could read a few chapters over lunch and we will do just that. We should finish up book 1 today and get ready for book 2.

But jeebus, hearing my kid tell me he was sad because I wasn’t there was rough. Especially for this book as I waited 8 or 9 months for him to bring it to me and ask to start reading it. As Bryan Adams said it cuts like a knife. One added benefit of all the management training I’ve taken is that I can keep a poker face when I need to and it came in handy here.

We’ve explained to him as much as we can, that Daddy is out helping kids that need help, but we’re still a few months shy of his 6th birthday, there’s only so much we can say. Normally he is very accepting of it. I try to not do too much org business while he is awake, because I don’t want him to think that the org is taking time away from him while I am home as well as gone, but that can’t always be avoided.

Katie and I have discussed this before and essentially we’re playing the long game on this, dealing with momentary upsets knowing that when Logan gets old enough to understand the situation these kids are in, he’ll also understand why it was important they had someone, that they had an organization like ours that showed up for them when they needed it. But it doesn’t make it any easier right now.