Happy Father's Day!

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This week, I’m taking a break from The Word with Barrett Holmes Pitner to celebrate my first Father’s Day as a dad. Nine months ago we welcomed Barrett Joaquín Pitner Senteno into the world. Fatherhood has been such an incredible and enriching experience, and I’m excited to continue this journey for the rest of my life.

This newsletter will be relatively short, but I’d like to talk about one thing that I have learned since becoming a parent. It is easy to focus on the lack of sleep and exhaustion that comes with parenthood, but if you take a step back and objectively observe your child, you’ll see a person who spends every waking moment trying to grow and learn.

Every day they work to learn more about their body, and as a parent we have the opportunity to watch them struggle and challenge themselves as they will themselves to grow. The journey from only being able to lay on their back to then rolling over is remarkable, and as a parent, you have the opportunity to watch your child spend almost every moment trying to roll over. Once they succeed and reach that milestone the process continues anew but now the focus will become crawling and then it will become walking.

Children need to learn how to use their bodies so that they can physically move within the world, but they also spend the majority of their time trying to understand the world in which they live. They are curious about everything, so they try to hold everything. Once it reaches their hands the next step is to place it in their mouth. They want to understand everything through their five senses, and they normally complain when you take something out of their hand or their mouth. They think you are stopping them from learning, and will vocally express their frustration.

Young children take on life with a curiosity and passion that should also enrich adults. We can learn a lot from children, so long as we have also a desire to learn and grow. Lastly, they learn a lot by watching us, so as we learn from them we also have an obligation to try to be our best selves and set the right example, so that they can learn the right things from us.

Today, I’m going to focus on being a dad and learning from my son. I’ll be back next week with a new word.

Here are some photos of me and my son.

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My book THE CRIME WITHOUT A NAME was released on October 12, 2021 and NPR has picked it as one of the top books of the year!

You can order the book—including the audiobook—and watch recordings of my book tour discussions at Eaton and the New York Public Library at thecrimewithoutaname.com.

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