TIMMY DADDY

By Tim Sullivan

I’m aware that our readers don’t look to the Timmydaddy column for political insight and this is not a venture to change anyone’s mind. But while the First Amendment is fully intact… here’s a point of view to say that the hurt is real and raw and if your best response is “stop whining” I will think less of you. It’s a feeling of vulnerability, not just for ourselves but for so many friends as well, particularly those in minority groups, that in the coming years we will be shielding our kids from something awful. It may be another recession, war or an erosion of 50 years of civil and social progress. I hope I’m wrong. I do root for our president-elect to be successful, although I’m certain we disagree over what success would look like.

We’re all digging a little deeper. We’re doing our best to learn, to organize and to find opportunities for kindness and charity. Elliott just couldn’t fathom how anyone could have voted for Trump. Margo shrugged it off in a way to remind me that she’s 7 and she shouldn’t worry about these things. She’s right. Sometimes when one of the kids get hurt, a skinned knee or elbow, I’ll tell them to squeeze my hand and give the pain to me – I’ll absorb it for them because I’m bigger and stronger. My main takeaway from the election is that Kristen and I, and millions of parents, just absorbed a whole lot of worry.