How it feels to be upset with your kid by a guy that has no kids:

Someday I might have a kid, and someday, when him/her (it?) is between 15 and 23 I bet I’ll feel like this. I won’t tell them though, because that’s probably something you don’t do as a dad. Hopefully we can play video games together.

Child,

I’m so frustrated with you. I look at you, and I see myself at your age but better. With more potential, with more opportunities. And it makes me angry beyond belief that you would put any single one of those in jeopardy. I have the knowledge of 35 more years than you, and I can clearly look back at my life and see where I turned right when I should have turned left. I could draw a map of my life and mark off where I lost each of those opportunities. (The ones I didn’t lose will be marked as capital cities.) And you have so many more to either lose or grasp.

Part of it is that these are my opportunities almost as much as they are yours. I created many of them for you. We are upper middle class because I went to college and then I went to some more college. Because I worked more than I should have. That stuff had an effect on me. Bluntly, I would have been a more fun person without kids. A better husband to my wife, to your mother. Instead I became a better father, a decision I would make 100 times out of 100. But still, I made sacrifices for you and don’t you dare waste a single opportunity that those sacrifices provided.

Now, this is coming off negative, but the crux of why I feel how I feel is still the incredible potential that you have. There is a very high ceiling for your accomplishments and for you as a person. I get frustrated because I can see that and you can’t.

I’m sorry to bring this up. It probably seems out of place or unfair coming from me. Look past the fact that I’m your dad though and I’m just a person. Most of the time I feel like I have things figured out, but I certainly don’t always. I have stresses and frustrations. No matter what, remember that I’m your father, and I will love you no matter what you do.

I love you,

Dad