The Years I Can’t Get Back

I want to say something to every parent out there, especially the ones home with their kids all day. Don’t waste this time. Don’t drift through it. Don’t let the TV raise them or let video games swallow the hours. This window — this stretch between birth and eighteen — it flies. And once it’s gone, you never get it back. I’d give anything to go back and have just half the free time with my girls that so many parents have right now.

If I could rewind the clock, I’d treat that time like gold. I’d schedule it like work. I’d wake up with a plan. I’d have a goal every day. And I’d pour everything I had into them — all the love, all the lessons, all the fun, all the memories.

Spend the days teaching them things that matter and things that don’t matter but make life fun. Read Bible stories or tell them stories from your childhood. Teach them how to use tools. Build something together, even if it’s crooked. Have a catch. Play tug of war. Dodgeball. Tag. Jump rope. Sing. Dance. Do art. Paint something. Work with clay. Sew something. Tune up your lawn mower and let them “help.” Shoot baskets, throw a football, ride bikes. Cook with them, bake with them, burn something together and laugh about it.

Teach them about money — real money — by paying them when they help you or do chores. Show them what work, reward, and responsibility look like. Let them feel the pride of earning something instead of just receiving it. That lesson alone sets the course for the rest of their lives.

Plant a garden. Change the oil in your car if you know how. Detail your car together until it shines like it did when you were nineteen. Pull out old photos of yourself when your hair was thicker and your waist was smaller and tell them the stories behind those faces.

Tell them jokes. Tell them dreams. Tell them mistakes. Tell them who you were before life knocked you around a bit. And most of all, tell them they’re wonderful. Tell them they’re smart, strong, handsome, beautiful, capable. Tell them they can be anything they want to be. Say it over and over until it’s burned into their bones.

And tell them you love them — not once, not twice, but so many times they roll their eyes and smile.

I’m telling you this because when I was a young adult, I was working long hours, running stores, building my career, doing what I thought I had to do. I blinked, and they were grown. I’d trade anything to go back and have this kind of uninterrupted time with my daughters. Anything.

So don’t waste it. I don’t care if your kid is two or twenty-two — the investment pays off in ways you won’t understand until years later. It shapes who they become. In some cases, it can be the difference between a lost path and a steady one.

Tell me — what are you doing today with your kids?